


Loving with a Little Twist

by hrrytomlinson



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Anal Sex, Blow Jobs, Craigslist, Face-Fucking, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Family Bonding, Hand Jobs, M/M, Mutual Pining, New York City, Sharing a Bed, Shower Sex, Thanksgiving, it gets super fluffy at some parts, not british, nothing intense, they're american too
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-27
Updated: 2016-11-27
Packaged: 2018-09-02 13:41:25
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 29,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8669809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hrrytomlinson/pseuds/hrrytomlinson
Summary: “What are you going to do?”“I don’t know Niall! I just promised my mother I’m bringing my boyfriend - a boyfriend I don’t have - to Thanksgiving dinner. What should I do? I can’t call back and be like, ‘Oh yeah mom, that boyfriend I said that I have, I don’t actually have. Sorry to disappoint you.’ My life is ruined.” Harry returns to suffocating himself with the pillow. Niall laughs and Harry growls at his best friend’s unwarranted happiness in this life-ending situation. Harry is fucked. Fuck. He needs a boyfriend. Fuck.(or a thanksgiving themed fake/pretend relationship au)





	

**Author's Note:**

> When I saw [this picture](http://images.distractify.com/v0.2/body/2015/11/0sUhMYo.jpg) on tumblr five days before Thanksgiving, I knew that I HAD to write a fic based on it. I've tried writing fic before but I could never finish a whole story so my goal was to at least finish this. I was aiming for 5k, 10k if I was lucky. Look where I am now. Yikes. This was read and edited a bit by my friend Maddison. Let me know if you find any mistakes yourself while reading, please.
> 
> My goal was to also post this before or on Thanksgiving so I am a little late, oops. It can now be an early birthday present for [Dillon](http://whatsthebigdill.tumblr.com)! 
> 
> I wrote this whole entire thing listening to ONLY Little Mix's new album Glory Days. Seriously every single word was written with Glory Days being funneled into my ears. Which is why the title is a lyric from one of my favorite songs Private Show. 
> 
> Enjoy!
> 
>  
> 
> [this is my tumblr](http://hrrytomlinson.tumblr.com) // [this is a rebloggable post for this fic](http://hrrytomlinson.tumblr.com/post/153720279305/loving-with-a-little-twist-by-hrrytomlinson) // [here are images of h/l and their outfits i used](http://hrrytomlinson.tumblr.com/tagged/thanksgiving-fic)

When Louis woke up this morning he absolutely did not think the start to this day would be this shitty, until he remembers he has to call up his mother. Oh well. His life has been shitty for a while now - the past four years to be exact. He’s used to it. It is what it is. 

He rolls his head and shoulders and picks up his phone. He takes a deep breath and navigates to his address book, tapping on his most talked to contact. The phone barely rings before it’s picked up.

“Hi boo, how are you doing? I’m great! I’ve been missing you obviously and so have the girls - and Ernie too! Oh! I forgot to text you the other day, but Dan has been planning a very romantic dinner for me for next weekend, apparently. Lottie accidently let it slip…” Jay’s warm voice fills his ears, her nonstop chatter instantly calming him. He takes a deep breath, reminding himself why he is calling to begin with.

He cuts off his mother with a chuckle. “Hello Mom. I’ve been okay. Sorry to cut you off, but I actually have to talk about something serious.”

“Oh. It’s okay, Louis. Go ahead,” his mom replies. He inwardly groans at the palpable drop of energy from his mom.

“I’m sorry Mom, truly.” He takes a deep breath.

“It’s okay, Lou-”

“I can’t come home for Thanksgiving.” There it is. He’s the worst son ever. Thanksgiving is his mom’s favorite holiday because of how blessed she feels. She loves every opportunity where she’s able to give thanks for all she has been allowed to experience in her life, the good and the bad. Louis feels absolutely devastated.

“Oh.” That’s all his mother can say.

“I’m so sorry Mom. I’m so, so sorry. I can’t. I seriously can’t and I hate it. You know I’ve been tight with money lately and I just can’t afford the train ticket this year. I’ve been struggling and I don’t want handouts, you know this. I don’t want you to buy me a ticket either, don’t you dare,” Louis chokes out. 

“Hey, Louis, calm down baby. You’re okay. I’m okay. I understand. Just because you can’t make it down, doesn’t mean you don’t love us. I just want you to be happy, safe, and healthy,” Jay reassures her son. 

“I’m sorry Mom,” Louis whispers. 

“It’s okay, Louis, I promise. We’ll talk soon. I hear the start of a tantrum from little Doris, so I gotta go. But remember that I love you Louis and it’s okay.”

Louis and his mom finally hang up and he rolls over in his head, stuffs his face into his pillow and screams. Then he remembers that he’ll be completely, totally alone on Thanksgiving. He can’t go home and his roommates are spending the holiday in Erie with extended family. Great. Oh well. It is what it is. 

-

Louis feels a set of eyes on his back. Make that two sets of eyes, in fact. He hates Zayn and Liam. He really, truly, actually hates them. They’re the worst best friends any guy could have. He tells them as much.

“Aw Lou, you know you love us more than anything!” Zayn chirps back.

“Leave me alone. I’m trying to nap.” Louis nestles even deeper into the couch cushions and closes his eyes even tighter. 

“You’ve done literally nothing all day. Why are you trying to nap?”

And  _ wow _ . Very rude, Liam Payne. Very rude. Louis has had a very tough day so far, as a matter of fact.

Louis rolls onto his other side, facing away from the back of the couch and towards the couple cuddling on the loveseat that’s adjacent to him. He shoots a glare at Liam. “Because I’m a hard worker, Payno - unlike you - and I need all my energy for tonight’s shift.”

“Oh, you’re working tonight, Lou? I thought the three of us could go to Roy’s tonight to check out the new queen performing tonight. I heard she’s pretty good, especially for a newbie,” Zayn says with a sad tilt to his lips. 

“Sorry to disappoint. You guys can still go, obviously, I’ll just have to watch the show from behind the bar.” 

Louis has been bartending at Roy’s for as long as he can remember. Roy and his husband Shawn have always been mentors to Louis, ever since he dropped out of NYU and dropped straight into their little gay bar. 

New York City left little eighteen-year-old Louis star struck when he first moved there. He was used to a city environment, being from Philadelphia, but NYC was something completely different. Luckily he had Zayn, Liam, and Erik with him; his two closest friends and his boyfriend. 

Until he didn’t. 

In his first few years of school, New York was full of life and love for Louis and his friends. Until Erik left him for some girl in his program. That’s when New York stopped being romantic, and it stopped being everything Louis wanted. He stopped thinking it’s a city where fairytales come true, and he finally realized that the happiness he felt was fake and nothing he wanted. It was one of the toughest moments of his life, realizing just how poor he was in this new city, realizing just how unwanted he was by his boyfriend of three years, and realizing just how unfit he was for his selected major, for the college experience over all. 

Which is how he ended up at Roy’s. It was the first bar in sight in the moments after Erik’s breakup and Louis dragged Zayn and Liam with him. It was barely a month after his twenty-first birthday and a week away from the start of the new semester. He spent the night spectacularly drunk and when he finally rid of himself of the hangover the next morning, he called up NYU to officially start the process of dropping out. 

He had been considering dropping out for a while, but that night truly pushed him over the edge. 

His visits to Roy’s had been consistent after that. Zayn likes to point out that he basically became an alcoholic until Roy stepped in and offered Louis a steady bartending job if he would quit the chronic drinking. So Louis cleaned himself up and has been working for Roy ever since. 

Zayn’s ringing phone pulls Louis out of his mind and into the present. He reaches into his pocket and extracts himself from Liam’s side, grabbing his pack of cigarettes and lighter on his way to the balcony. 

Louis raises his eyebrow at Liam, silently asking who called.

Liam rolls his eyes. “It’s his mom. Probably triple checking if everything’s okay for our trip to Erie. She’s extremely anxious. It’s understandable though. It’s our first joint Thanksgiving together, and we’re not even having it at home. My mom has been pretty anxious the past week as well. Calling every two hours to remind me to pack enough underwear or to make sure we have our bus tickets. The bus tickets I bought three months ago. It’s getting annoying,” he laughs.

And Louis forgot. He’s spending Thanksgiving alone. He can’t afford to go home and he definitely can’t spend it with his lovesick roommates who are traveling to fucking Erie, Pennsylvania. 

Louis chuckles, but there’s no emotion behind it. “Yeah, it sounds like you guys got a lot on your plate. It’s cool, though, that you’re going to your grandparents’ and they told you to invite Zayn and his family. It’ll be a super cute gathering.” He inwardly cringes. 

Zayn chooses that moment to renter the apartment, which Louis is a little grateful for. It’s hard to pretend to be happy for his best friends when he’s currently dying on the inside. Well. Not  _ actually _ dying, he’s just being dramatic, but still. 

Zayn huffs out a gust of air as he falls back onto the loveseat and repositions himself into Liam’s side. He mumbles something along the lines of, “Jesus fucking Christ, every single second of this trip has been planned to perfection and she’s still going insane over it.” 

Liam leans closer to Zayn’s ear and whispers something Louis can’t hear, but whatever he says causes Zayn to blush. And. That’s it. Louis can’t handle this anymore, so he turns over to face the back of the couch and pulls his blanket over his head and shuts his eyes, trying to steal a few hours of sleep before he has to go into work. 

-

Harry’s dying. Well, not actually. But that’s what it feels like. He’s going to ruin Thanksgiving. He’s totally going to ruin his mom’s favorite holiday. He just got off the phone with Anne  _ after _ he promised he’ll bring his boyfriend to Thanksgiving dinner. The boyfriend he doesn’t have. Why does he have no brain to mouth filter? Harry is dying. 

The phone call started off really well with updates on his grandparents and their upcoming travel to their home until Anne had said, “Oh, and baby, your nan wants to know whether or not you’re finally going to bring a nice boy to Thanksgiving dinner.”

On the other side of the phone Harry had froze in fear. His nan was always teasing him about whether or not he had a boyfriend, but it was always on the downlow and he never realized his mom might have caught on with the ongoing banter. 

“Uh,” Harry stuttered into the phone.

Anne chuckled in Harry’s ear. “I have to side with her on this, Harry. I know we haven’t sat down and had a truly long mom-son phone conversation in a while, so I’ve been missing chunks of your life. So, tell me. Do you have a boyfriend?”

Harry heard the unspoken plea of,  _ “Please have a boyfriend.” _

Harry’s brain stopped working and his mouth dried up. With clammy hands he switched his cellphone to his other ear and cleared his throat. 

“Uh… Yeah, about that mom. I am bringing someone to Thanksgiving dinner.” Harry let out a small, dry laugh as his roommate and best friend Niall walked in the door. Niall abruptly stopped when he walked by Harry, noticing his panic-stricken expression.

Anne gasped. “Harry! That’s great! Oh my-”

“Hey Mom,” Harry cut her off, “I got to go. Niall just got back and we’ve got plans. I’ll talk to you soon. Love you, bye!” Harry hastily hung up after his mom’s rushed goodbye and love declarations. He dropped his phone onto the carpeted floor and faceplanted into the nearest pillow on the couch.

Niall joined him on the couch after picking up Harry’s phone and that’s where Harry is now. Dying. Harry is dying. 

“What was that about, H?” Niall asks softly. Harry lets out a loud, prolonged groan. 

Niall laughs. “Was it really that serious?”

“IjusttoldmymomI’mbringingmyboyfriendtoThanksgivingdinner,” Harry mumbles into the pillow. 

Niall narrows his eyes. “Dude, what the fuck did you just say? Boyfriend? Thanksgiving?”

Harry removes his face from the pillow and folds his legs under himself on the couch, hugging the pillow to his chest. He takes a deep breath preparing himself. 

“I just told my mom I’m bringing my boyfriend to Thanksgiving dinner,” he repeats. He doesn’t dare to look at Niall’s eyes, afraid to see extreme disappointment in his best friend’s eyes. 

Silence hangs in the air between the two friends until Niall lets out a loud, uproarious laugh that scares Harry, making him jump. “What the fuck, Niall?!” 

Niall’s laughing so hard that there are tears in his eyes. “Oh my god, Harry! That is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. You’ve got to be having me on, mate. That’s too good to be true.”

Harry doesn’t say anything, just pouts and turns his gaze to the thread he’s pulling out of the corner of the pillow. Niall sobers when he notices Harry’s reaction.

“You’re not… You’re not serious, are you, H? That’s literally the most fucked up thing I’ve ever heard come out of your mouth, and you say some pretty wacky shit. You haven’t had a boyfriend since Sage and you know he was a right dick.” 

Harry groans. “Don’t remind me.” 

“What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know, Niall! I just promised my mother I’m bringing my boyfriend - a boyfriend I don’t have - to Thanksgiving dinner. What should I do? I can’t call back and be like,  _ ‘Oh yeah Mom, that boyfriend I said that I have, I don’t actually have. Sorry to disappoint you and Nan.’ _ Because I definitely know she already called my nan up to spread the news. You know how much Nan obsesses over me having a nice boyfriend. My life is ruined.” Harry returns to suffocating himself with the pillow. 

Niall laughs and Harry growls at his best friend’s unwarranted happiness in this life-ending situation. Harry is fucked. Fuck. He needs a boyfriend. Fuck.

“Niall, how am I going to get a boyfriend? Thanksgiving is in like a week!”

“I don’t know, Harry. I’m sorry. We’ll think of something, I promise.” Niall offers a small smile and pulls Harry into his side to give him some comforting cuddles.

-

Louis slides a pair of fresh beers towards the two girls sitting at the bar. He wipes off the paths of condensation they leave on the counter and lets out a short sigh. 

“What’s the matter, Lou?” Perrie asks softly, despite the club’s atmosphere. Currently, there’s a very high energy lip sync performance happening onstage by Roy’s newest drag queen performer and she’s honestly killing it. Louis wishes he could be closer to the stage with Liam and Zayn.

“Yeah, Lou, you look pretty down,” Emily, Perrie’s girlfriend, tacks on with a sad tilt to her mouth. Louis has known Perrie and Emily since their freshman year of college when they had their Shakespeare class together. They instantly bonded over comments on how poorly their professor was dressed. 

Louis shrugs, not meeting his friends’ eyes. “It’s nothing, girls. Just can’t make it home for Thanksgiving and I’m little bummed I’m gonna be spending it all alone in the apartment.”

“Oh, Lou,” Perrie sighs. And, no. Louis doesn’t want any pity. 

“No, Perrie. Don’t. It’s okay, I’m a big boy. I don’t want your sympathy.”

“But,” Emily starts but is cut off by the sharp look Louis gives her. 

“I can’t make it to Philly for Thanksgiving this year. It is what it is. Hopefully I’ll be able to make it for Christmas. I probably will be able to, but Thanksgiving this year is just impossible.” Louis shrugs and walks away from his friends to serve some guy down at the other side of the bar who is waving at him.

Louis makes minimal eye contact and no conversation with the guy he’s serving. However, he does notice the long, curly hair the stranger is sporting and rolls his eyes as he quickly slides the pink drink and beer he ordered towards him, still avoiding any confrontation. He makes his way back over to Emily and Perrie and finds them giggling together.

“Lou! Em just had the smartest idea! Oh babe, tell him, tell him. It’s great, Louis. It’ll solve all your problems,” Perrie gushes. 

Emily giggles, “Babe, calm down. It’s nothing really, just a little joke I made, Lou, honestly. But it might be a good idea. Just don’t start hating the idea before I finish my explanation, okay?”

Louis narrows his eyes, gaze flicking back and forth between the couple. Cautiously he says, “Carry on…”

Emily takes a deep breath. “So you know Craigslist, right?”

Oh no. Louis hates this already, but he promised he’d hear his friend out. Louis gives a short nod.

“So there’s like a casual encounters section, someone in my third period class - his name is Justin - actually mentioned it last week. It’s basically people posting about needing friends or partners in some activity or whatever. He said someone posted about needing a buddy to go skydiving with because he didn’t wanna go alone, so Justin sent him a message and they went skydiving together. How cool!”

Louis blinks at Emily. “Okay, cool. What does this have to do with me? And what problems of mine will it possibly solve?”

“Don’t you see, Lou!” Perrie exclaims. “You should make a post saying that you’re free on Thanksgiving and willing just to have company, or ask if anyone needs company so you get a free Thanksgiving meal out of it!”

“It’s such a great idea!” 

“It’s wonderful!”

“Fool proof!”

“Free food. New friends!”

“Girls, girls,” Louis shouts, trying to calm down the very tipsy couple. “Stop it. I get it,” he chuckles over their excitement. “But, I don’t know…”

“Oh Lou, promise me you’ll think about it?” Perrie pouts. 

“Please?” Emily echoes. 

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll give it some thought.” Louis turns his back on his friends to serve some of the waiting patrons. He rolls his eyes and makes a vow not to give it thought. Nope. No thinking about it.

-

That night, all Louis did was think about it. 

He got home from work, decided to take a quick warm shower to rub off the grime of bartending and to rub one off to some hot guy he remembers serving sometime during the night. What? You can’t blame Louis, the guy had some pretty big biceps and deep blue eyes. 

After his shower, Louis tosses on some soft, worn sweatpants over his underwear and snuggles into his covers. He feels pretty exhausted so he sets his phone on his bedside table, trying not to give into the temptation of checking his social media accounts in favor of falling asleep right away. However, as soon as his eyes are closed and all he sees is black, Louis’ brain reminds him of his conversation with Emily and Perrie from earlier in the night.

Louis rolls around, groaning.  _ Stop it. Stop it. It’s a bad idea. You’re not that desperate for some company. It’s weird.  _

And, well, Louis technically is desperate for some kind of company. When he thinks of Thanksgiving, he doesn’t picture himself locked away in his apartment eating ramen. He wants friends, family, or at least some type of company.

Oh god, Louis can’t actually believe he’s considering this Craigslist thing. It’s definitely a weird idea. He might not get a response. He might get a response. He might be able to get a free Thanksgiving meal out of it. 

Louis crawls out of bed to retrieve his laptop from his desk. He opens it up on his bed and lets it power on while he sneaks out to the kitchen to prepare himself a cup of tea. He’s going to need it. 

After the tea is made to his liking, Louis settles into his bed with his laptop balanced on his knees and his cup of tea nearby. He navigates his way to Craigslist and starts formulating what he’s going to say in his head. This is a horrible, yet slightly genius idea. Here goes nothing. 

-

Harry loves the process of waking up on the weekends, especially Saturdays. He has no morning classes to worry about being on time for. He has time to actually prepare a real breakfast in his and Niall’s kitchen rather than stuffing his face with a banana as he runs out of the door.

He loves how the room slightly warms up via the sunlight breaking through the cracks in his curtains. The feeling of being wrapped up in a warm comforter after a good night of sleep is a feeling of true peacefulness and it’s something Harry looks forward to every week.

Except for today. Niall fucking Horan had to ruin it. 

Instead of being woken up by soft rays of light, Harry’s slumber was interrupted by Niall flinging his body onto Harry’s, which was not soft at all. It was not peaceful and it was nothing Harry was looking forward to.

“H, wake the fuck up!” Niall shouts in Harry’s face.

Harry only groans in pain as a response. 

“Guess what, Harry! I know how to solve your problem. I’m back at it again. The ultimate power problem solver, Niall Horan is at your service!”

“Shut up, Niall,” Harry mumbles into the pillow. “Go away. Leave me alone.”

Niall lets out a loud cackle. “Mate, get your ass out of bed. It’s like noon. Make me some food and while you’re at it, I’ll tell you how I solved your Thanksgiving boyfriend problem.”

And  _ that _ catches Harry’s attention. “Whaa?” Harry slurs, still a little under the influence of sleep, as Niall removes his surprisingly heavy body off of Harry’s. 

“C’mon, up ya get.”

After Niall finally leaves Harry in peace, he gets up and dresses himself in his favorite soft, warm NYU sweatshirt and some trackpants. As he brushes his teeth he tries imagining what weird solution Niall had thought of overnight to fix Harry’s problem of a nonexistent boyfriend. 

Maybe he’ll suggest that Harry fakes his death. Maybe he’ll tell Harry to fess up to the truth and tell his mom that he doesn’t actually have a boyfriend. Perhaps Niall will suggest that he can be Harry’s pretend boyfriend. Which, one, ew, and two, is a little impossible because Anne has already met Niall  _ and _ Niall’s girlfriend. Maybe Niall will set up Harry on a blind date with a mutual friend of theirs and they’ll hit it off and become boyfriends in record time. 

Harry keeps formulating ideas in his head as he walks into the apartment’s kitchen in a daze, not even noticing the open laptop sitting on the island counter. He pulls out eggs and sausage and starts cooking while he hears Niall’s shower running. 

Harry still feels like shit for lying to his mom. He truly can’t believe he placed himself in this shitty of a situation. He hates breaking his mom’s trust and, on top of that, he’s going to have to let his nan down, who is spectacularly pleased that Harry had a boyfriend, which she let him know through a series of texts Harry found on his phone after waking up this morning. 

_ Oh Harry dear, I’m so happy for you :-) _

_ A boyfriend, how wonderful!!!!!!! _

_ What’s his name? Oh my, I’m so excited! Don’t tell me, I want to hear it for the first time when you introduce me to him.  _

_ I bet he’s a stunning boy, H. Only the best for the best grandson out there. Xx _

Harry finishes up plating breakfast as Niall comes into the kitchen fresh from his shower. Harry places the plates on the island and pours them both healthy glasses of orange juice. Niall sits with his laptop and Harry joins across from him. They’re silent as they tuck into the first bites of their meal. 

Harry finally breaks the silence by clearing his throat and asking, “So, what’s your solution to my boyfriend problem?”

Niall doesn’t respond to Harry, doesn’t even lift his eyes up off of his phone and food, he only turns and pushes his laptop towards his best friend.

The bright screen that is now in Harry’s face is opened up to a Craigslist posting. Curiously, Harry starts to read. 

_ Casual Encounters _

_ Alone on Thanksgiving? Mad at your parents? _

_ I am a 24 year old college dropout. I can play anywhere between the ages of 20 and 28 depending on if i shave. I'm a bartender who works late nights. If you'd like to have me as your strictly platonic date for Thanksgiving, but have me pretend to be in a very long or serious relationship with you, to torment your family, or to get them off your back, I'm game. _

_ I can do these things, at your request: _

  * __openly hit on other guests and family members while you act like you dont notice.__


  * _start instigative discussions about politics and/or religion._


  * _propose to you in front of everyone._


  * _pretend to be really drunk as the evening goes on (sorry, i dont drink, but i used to. alot. too much in fact. i know the drill)._


  * _start an actual physical fight with a family member, either inside or on the front lawn for all the neighbors to see._



_ I require no pay but the free meal i will receive as a guest! Guys and gals alike welcome to this offer!  _

  * __do NOT contact me with unsolicited services or offers__



_ \- Louis Tomlinson (louist91@gmail.com) _

Harry laughs out loud after he finishes reading the post. “Is this one of those viral things going around Facebook? It’s a right laugh, honestly. That’d be hilarious.” 

Harry lets out few more quick giggles over the idea of this listing. He didn’t even think these kinds of things existed or people were willing to do this. Harry finishes his breakfast as he rereads the listing for another laugh. Whoever this Louis guy is sounds pretty funny and his writing conveys that, but that’s why he guesses this is one of those new viral photos or something.

“So?” Niall asks as they’re clearing the table.

“So what?” Harry asks. “Oh and you never told me how you plan to solve my no boyfriend problem.” 

Niall raises his eyebrow. “Mate, you realize that’s a real posting? It’s not viral or anything. I found it this morning. This is how we’re going to solve your no boyfriend problem.”

Harry’s jaw drops. “It’s real?” He is very, very confused right about now.

Niall cackles. “Yeah mate! Email him and talk to him. Ask him if he’ll be your boyfriend for Thanksgiving dinner.”

“Oh my god, Niall! That’s so weird! How did you even think of this?”

“My mate Justin, we have our third period class together, was explaining how this casual encounters sections is people posting about needing friends to help them out in situations or people offering to help. He took up one guys offer to go skydiving for free because the dude didn’t wanna do it alone. It sounded sick so I’ve been occasionally checking since he told us about it. You know, just in case a wicked opportunity pops up and I found this.” Niall shrugs.

Harry’s jaw is still wide open in surprise. Niall removes himself from the island and piles his dirty dishes into the sink. As he passes Harry, he forces him to close his mouth with a tap to his chin.

“Think about it mate. You’re desperate, he’s offering. Why not?” Niall questions. “Not to mention, you’re so totally and desperately in need a boyfriend at this point. What more can you lose?”

Harry just blinks after his best friend as he exits the room, not exactly sure what to think or what his next step should be.

-

Louis regrets it the moment he wakes up. It was a stupid idea. He was just sad, sleepy, and feeling a little bit desperate when he typed up the listing and posted it in the early hours of the morning when he should’ve been asleep.

He’s dreading having to tell Zayn and Liam. You think he wouldn’t have to, that he can just quietly delete the Craigslist post after he eat breakfast, but his two best friends will instantly pick up on his mood change and interrogate the living hell out of him. 

Standing in front of his bathroom mirror, mouth fresh with the taste of toothpaste, Louis takes a deep breath, gives himself a little pep talk, and goes to join Liam and Zayn in the kitchen where he smells breakfast.

“Morning Lou,” Liam greets, placing a plate of pancakes and a glass of apple juice in front of Louis when he joins them at the table. 

“Good pancakes this morning, babe. Thank you,” Zayn says softly, leaning into Liam’s personal space to give him a kiss to the cheek. 

The pancakes _ are _ good, but Louis is too on edge to really pay attention to that. Zayn automatically notices his best friends twitchiness. 

“What’s up Lou?” Zayn asks softly, reaching a foot out under the table to hook around Louis’ ankle comfortingly. 

“You okay?” Liam questions cautiously. 

Louis chuckles. “Oh my god guys, you’re acting like something drastically life changing has happened to me. It’s nothing really, me just being a dumbass like usual.”

Zayn raises his eyebrows, prompting Louis to continue.

“You know how I’m going to be spending Thanksgiving here… alone?” The couple nods in synchronization (which, weirdos). “Well, the idea of that was really bumming me out. So Perrie and Emily suggested that I make a Craigslist post last night.” 

Liam and Zayn are quite shocked at the idea until Louis explains what Perrie and Emily told him last night. 

“That’s actually not really a bad idea. Smart girls,” Liam says thoughtfully.

“Yeah, well, I actually followed their advice. I…This morning, when I couldn’t sleep… I wrote the post. I really regret it right about now. No one’s probably going to look at it and if they do they’ll be super weirded out by it. Ugh.” Louis drops his head to the table.

“Can we see what you posted?” Zayn asks, trying to hide his snickers.

“I guess so. I got nothing else to lose.”

When Louis returns to the kitchen with his laptop, the dishes from breakfast are cleared away and Liam and Zayn are waiting patiently. Louis rolls his eyes. They can literally be such parents sometimes it’s annoying. But he loves them, so it’s okay. 

He opens up the post he made, turns the computer to face his friends, and braces himself for the worst. 

Liam giggles, “This is actually really funny and witty, Lou. I love it. I’d definitely be like, ‘hell yeah, I wanna fuck some shit up,’ and email you asking for some help.”

“Oh my god!” Zayn laughs out loud. “The list of things you can do at their request, Lou. Absolutely ridiculous!”

Louis blushes. “I just want to have fun, ya know? And if someone wants to fuck up their family a little, it’d be a pretty exciting night for both me and them, don’t ya think?”

“This is actually genius! I’m glad you listened to Perrie and Emily,” Liam adds thoughtfully.

And Louis has to agree with him. Putting his ego to the side, Louis can actually see how good of an idea this can turn out to be. Maybe he’ll make a new friend if someone actually contacts him. That’s best case scenario. It’s also a little scary because he’s putting himself out there like this and maybe some weirdo murderer will contact him, but that’s also worst case scenario.

As the day progresses, Louis becomes more confident in his decision to keep the posting up instead of deleting it. He’s been compulsively checking his email, waiting for some form of validation that someone might actually benefit from this proposed arrangement besides himself. The thoughts of being alone on Thanksgiving become more and more oppressive and the possibility of not having to spend the holiday alone is giving him hope. 

Later that night when Louis, Liam, and Zayn are cuddled up on the couch binge watching episodes of Chopped, Louis feels his phone vibrate. He pulls it out of his pocket, expecting a text message, but his screen is black. He’s very, very confused for a moment before he remembers that he could have an email in his inbox. 

He freezes. 

Louis realizes this could mean that someone replied to his Craigslist posting. He starts to internally panic as Zayn and Liam start having a conversation over the mystery ingredients in the basket on the television. 

Someone  _ actually _ replied to Louis. Oh god. This could turn out so good, but also end up in a total fucking disaster and it scares Louis a little bit. But what if he’s hyping himself up for nothing and it’s just a junk email from some random website he’s subscribed to?

“Just check the damn email, Lou,” Zayn mumbles quickly, turning his attention back like he never even spoke.

Louis takes a deep breath, types in his passcode, and navigates to his email. And there it is, sitting at the top of his email, a message with the subject line “Thanksgiving.”

_ Thanksgiving. _

_ To: Louis Tomlinson (louist91@gmail.com) _

_ From: Harry Styles (h_styles@gmail.com) _

_ Hiii! _

_ My name is Harry Styles. I’m actually writing to talk to you about your Craigslist posting. (Which was really funny by the way, it seems like you’ve got a great sense of humor.) Umm… Anyway. I really don’t know what to say? I would like to take you up on your offer, I guess?  _

_ It might be easier for me to explain, I guess. Ha.  _

_ So, basically, I’m in some deep shit. I promised my mom I’d bring my boyfriend home for Thanksgiving dinner. I don’t have a boyfriend.  _

_ And it sucks. Because my mom and my nan are always on my back wondering if I have a nice, cute boyfriend yet and I always feel like a failure when I tell them that I don’t and I don’t like disappointing them. Sometimes it makes me doubt myself, like, makes me wonder if I’m not good enough for a boyfriend? Ya know? I just wanted to stop disappointing them and so I accidentally lied to my mom on the phone the other day saying I’d bring my (nonexistent!) boyfriend to dinner. So. I’m a little desperate and my mate Niall showed me your post and suggested I think about it. _

_ So. Are you willing to help me out?  _

_ Oh, and my name is Harry and I’m 21. I live in New York City. We would have to travel to the suburbs, cause that’s where my parents live, but I have a car we can use… I mean, that is, if you agree.  _

_ Oh gosh, I’m so sorry this is getting very long. I ramble a lot. I’m so sorry! _

_ Let me know what you think. If you’re in the New York area maybe we can meet up for coffee to chat further? I’ll add my phone number at the end, so feel free to text me. _

_ Take care, _

_ Harry Styles xxx _

Louis’ first reaction to this email is most definitely confusion. But he’s also endeared by this total and complete stranger. Also, he’s a little shocked.

Confused and shocked because, is this real? If it is, someone  _ actually _ replied to his Craigslist posting? Someone might actually need Louis’ help or want his company on Thanksgiving? 

This boy, Harry Styles, is totally and completely ridiculous sounding. His rambling in the email, the way introduced himself twice - it’s all very cute and Louis is very endeared. He’s also from New York, which is actually perfect. Yeah, he email got a little bit personal, but Louis find himself smiling at this boy’s awkward message. 

“Whatcha smilin’ at Lou?” Zayn slurs sleepily. 

Should Louis tell Zayn and Liam about the response? Right now it feels like a small, private moment between him and email-Harry. It almost feels too intimate to share. Which is just weird. It’s a fucking an email, nothing more. Louis needs to get a grip. 

He clears his throat, along with the fondness he knew would show in his tone if spoke right away. “I got an email from some guy named Harry. He’s responding to my Craigslist post, wants to make me up on my offer. Suggested we talk more over coffee.”

“Oh, wow Louis! That’s great. Are you gonna meet up with him then?” Liam asked. 

Louis isn’t sure, to be honest. He’s excited someone read his post and actually thought he was funny, but also thought to reach out for  _ his _ help. Someone actually needed Louis for once. It was a weird feeling. He desperately wanted to spend his Thanksgiving with some company and it seemed like someone out there desperately wanted his company. 

“Yeah I guess so. See what is deal is. Double check he’s not a murderer, ya know,” Louis laughs. “I’ll text him in the morning to see if we can meet up. He said he lives in New York so it shouldn’t be too hard at all.” 

Liam sits up, pushing their shared plush blanket off himself. He reaches up, stretching his back. “Well, I’m gonna head to bed. Night, Lou.” 

Liam stands up, ruffling Louis’ hair and planting a kiss on the top of his head. “Be careful,” he whispers as he pulls away, exiting to his and Zayn’s bedroom. 

Zayn and Louis sit in silence for a few more minutes. Louis’ mind is racing, every thought revolving around one Harry Styles. Louis wonders what he looks like. What is his eye color? Louis also thinks about his personality. Harry does seem particularly endearing from the rambling in the email. Maybe he’s like this in real life too. He also has a lot of love and respect for his mom and nan, it seems. Louis might be looking forward to meeting him… just a little bit. 

Louis pulls away from the couch, saying goodnight to Zayn, and retires to his bedroom. Once he’s settled into his cold, empty bed, he lets himself feel. 

He simply can’t believe that someone out there might _ want _ him. Actually need  _ his _ help for once, not the other way around. It’s a little weird feeling, but also feels good. It’s nice. Someone made the conscious decision to reach out to Louis, the college dropout who bartends for a living right now. 

Louis goes to bed feeling warm and with an inkling of a smile on his face.

-

“Uhh,” Harry mumbles as he examines the coffee shop’s menu. He pulls his bottom lip in between his two fingers, thinking. 

“Harry,” Liam sighs. “You always get the same thing.”

Harry turns toward Liam, with an offended look on his face. “Liam. I have to consider the other items on the menu,  _ at least _ . I don’t want them to feel left out. It’s kind and courteous to at least acknowledge their existence. And what if you guys have something new that I don’t know about, hm?” Harry challenges.

Liam chuckles, “H, you know we haven’t had anything new in like three months.”

Harry sighs, rolling his eyes. He pouts knowing that Liam is right anyway. “Can I have a banana muffin and a grande iced coffee?”

Liam smiles, showing his teeth. He pushes the muffin and iced coffee towards Harry, having it ready since Harry walked in the door. Harry rolls his eyes again, but blushes a little bit at how predictable he is. He passes over the exact change for his order, thanks Liam, and wanders over to his favorite booth to get some work done on this essay that’s due tomorrow.

Harry’s still a little bitter at the fact that he has classes on Monday and Tuesday. Thanksgiving is on Thursday and NYU is closing Tuesday evening, making the break extremely short. Some of his friends have the whole week off for Thanksgiving break and Harry finds it a little unfair. 

He sighs, pulling out his laptop and headphones and preparing himself for a day of work and prep in his favorite Starbucks on campus. Harry navigates to his iTunes, putting his favorite new album on shuffle.

The beat of the music traveling through his headphones helps him focus and it’s a quick hour or so later by the time he’s typed up a well developed draft of his essay. He reaches his arms up, stretching his achy back, letting it pop and crack. Feeling satisfied with his stretch, Harry smiles lazily and gets up to throw away his trash and get a water from Liam.

“You’ve been working hard,” Liam casually chats as he prepares Harry’s water. 

“Yeah,” Harry hums. “Essay due tomorrow and just started it today.”

Liam laughs, “Zayn does that all the time. I’m trying to teach him some good academic skills but he just won’t listen. Here’s your water.”

Harry grabs the drink with smile of thanks and returns to his cozy little study spot. 

Once he’s comfortably nestled back into his spot, he opens up his email. He’s a little disappointed when he doesn’t see a reply from Louis in his inbox. Well, he’s a lot disappointed, to be honest. He was hoping he would hear back soon so they could start planning before the holiday, which is approaching quickly. 

Sighing, he puts his headphones back into his ear and opens Facebook just for a quick breeze before he gets back into his essay writing mode. He’s just about to comment on a post Gemma shared onto his timeline (a recipe to some fancy chicken dinner dish), when a notification comes through on his laptop that he’s received a text from an unknown number.

Curious about who could possibly be texting him and how they got his number, he opens up his messages on his Macbook. 

**hey harry its louis! thanks for the reply, id love to help u out :) we should definitely meet up soon to work out the details! let me know when ur free**

Harry’s jaw drops as soon as he reads that the text is from Louis. Harry was starting to think he’d never hear back from the guy. Without even thinking about what he’s saying, he instantly types out a reply.

_ Hiiii Louis! Thanks for everything (already!). I have some morning classes tomorrow, but my day is clear after 11, so do you want to grab lunch at 11:30? It’s okay if you can’t and we can go wherever you would like. My treat for you being such a life saver. H x _

He rereads the text after he hits send, which is a really stupid idea, and he regrets the kiss he tacked on at the end immediately. He’s going to ruin this before he even meets Louis and it’s just not fair. 

Harry decides to put on some slower, sadder music to match his mood. He opens his word document and gets back to work, trying to ignore how Louis hasn’t texted him back yet. Yep, Harry’s definitely scared him off already. 

**sounds great. 11:30 at tea bag? x**

Harry is instantly relieved that Louis chose Tea Bag as it’s on NYU’s campus and he can easily navigate to it from his last class. However, he soon forgets his relief when he finishes reading the whole text. 

Harry smiles at his laptop like a lunatic. Louis sent him a kiss back. Louis sent him a kiss back! He doesn’t hate Harry. He’s now feeling a whole new different wave of relief.

Harry stops himself. Why is he celebrating the fact that this complete stranger replied back to Harry’s kiss with his own? Harry totally needs to calm down. 

“Good god, get a grip girl,” Harry whispers to himself. 

He really, really needs to calm down. There’s no need to get giddy over texting a stranger. He’s going to meet the stranger (which also excites him a little more than it should), but still, these levels of excitement are totally unwarranted. 

He takes a deep breath, replies, and finally gets back to work, deciding to keep his mind off of any topic that revolves around a certain Louis Tomlinson. 

-

Louis can’t stop thinking about Harry Styles. The man literally signs his texts with his initial and a kiss. Every time. Well, at least every time that Louis has witnessed so far. Which has been admittedly only twice. But still, it’s a little ridiculous and a lot endearing. 

The last message he got from Harry was a simple confirmation text.

_ Tea bag sounds great! I’ll be the one with the long curly hair. :) H x _

And  _ long curly hair _ should be interesting. The only people Louis has ever talked to that had long hair were pretentious hipster wannabes. Louis prays his heart out that Harry isn’t a pretentious hipster wannabe. That would be absolutely tragic. 

Louis spends the rest of the day thinking about Harry and trying to imagine what this stranger could possibly look like. Louis is also a little confused. His fondness for Harry had been increasing with each form of communication he had received from Harry throughout their whole interaction time, which is definitely something. Louis usually isn’t easily endeared with people. The only people who truly endear Louis are his family and Liam and Zayn. Louis’ small attention span usually makes him automatically annoyed with anyone who is clumsy or rambles on and on.

Louis is truly confused as to why he’s finding Harry endearing at this point. But that’s something he’ll deal with tomorrow. 

He joins Zayn on the couch in the living room, pressuring him into playing some Fifa with him since Liam’s at work and can’t indulge Louis’ daily need to kick someone’s ass in some simulated football. 

-

You see, the reason Louis chose Tea Bag as his and Harry’s meeting place is that it serves tea and not coffee. Louis despises coffee. His mom raised his drinking tea and coffee is way too bitter for someone as bitter as Louis is and if you double Louis’ bitterness, it’s not a pretty sight. 

The other reason he chose Tea Bag is because of the name.

Actually not really. Well. Kinda. But truthfully, he chose it because of how close it is to his apartment. It’s super close and Louis is too lazy to walk any farther than necessary, you can’t blame him. It’s November and New York is fucking freezing. 

Louis bundles up for the quick walk over to Tea Bag, his nerves a little on edge. 

He’s going to meet Harry face to face. His fears of Harry being a bloodthirsty murderer have returned, but Liam reminded Louis before he left the apartment that he’s being irrational. Louis has always had a tendency for the dramatics, but it’s still a valid concern. 

However, if you put aside the murderer theory, Louis guesses he has very little to worry about. Harry is going to help solve his being lonely on Thanksgiving problem and Louis is going to help Harry solve his nonexistent boyfriend problem. Wait. Maybe Louis should have thought this through a little bit more. He’s going to have to be Harry’s boyfriend.

Those thoughts are swept away once he enters Tea Bag and the warm welcoming air and environment welcomes him. He takes a quick glance around, nothing that there is a grand total of three patrons inside the tea shop. There are two girls sitting in corner on the right side of the shop, giggling over something on their phones, and then there’s this boy hunched over, sitting alone in a booth on the left side of the shop. Luckily for Louis that boy has long curly hair. And for the record, it’s ridiculously  _ beautiful _ and luscious and soft looking. 

Oh god. Louis has a bad feeling about this. A good one. He can’t decipher the feeling that’s taken up space in his gut yet. 

He takes a deep breath, pastes on a large smile, and strides over to Harry confidently. 

He drops himself on the cushion across from Harry unceremoniously, causing the boy startle and stare at Louis with wide, frightened eyes. 

“Hey there,” Louis greets, smiling wide to show off his teeth, eyes crinkling in the corner. And fuck. Harry’s staring intently into Louis’ eyes and Louis is staring right back. Louis realizes how fucking gorgeous Harry is. Fuck. 

Harry’s eyes are clear, bright green. They remind Louis how a field looks right before sunset. The bright green of the grass and how it shines in low golden light of the setting sun. And Harry’s lips. Beautifully soft looking, pale pink, with just a hint of being chapped in the cold New York weather. Louis can’t even finish his greeting, he’s so floored by Harry’s beauty.

Louis and Harry sit in silence, fish mouthing at each other in a mix of shock and… something else Louis can’t put his finger on. 

However, Louis luckily breaks out of the trance soon enough and smiles warmly at Harry, trying to seem welcoming and approachable because Harry is still frozen and frantic looking. 

“So I heard you have a little bit of a problem? Concerning a nonexistent boyfriend, possibly?” Louis works his charm. It’s just a automatic reaction, not just because Harry’s pretty. Or that’s just what Louis is telling himself. 

He wiggles his eyebrows. “Louis Tomlinson at your service.” 

There’s a beat of silence. Then Louis groans.

“Oh my god! I’m so sorry.” Louis drops his head to the table. “That sounded like a very terrible opening to like some porno or something I’m so sorry.” Someone put Louis out of his misery right now,  _ please _ .

Louis’ suffering his interrupted by Harry honking out a loud laugh. “I’m. I’m so sorry,” Harry tries to say between laughs and breathless giggles. “That was so,” more snickers, “horrible! Oh my god. I can’t believe you just did that.”

“Yeah, yeah, Curly. Go ahead, keep laughing. I’m just dying of embarrassment over here for such a cringe greeting. Oh god. I can’t believe that truly came out of my mouth,” Louis groans.

Harry’s eyes are shining and he smiles at Louis. Oh no. That’s when Louis learns that Harry Styles has a fucking dimple. Can he get more perfect? He returns his head to the table and lets out yet another pitiful groan, this time over how cute Harry is.

“Aw, it’s okay. We all do stupid stuff sometime. Once I put salt in my tea instead of sugar, by accident,” Harry shrugs. And the answer to Louis’ question is yes. Yes, Harry Styles _can_ get more perfect. Louis wants to die. 

“Can we start over please? I’m Louis.” Louis offers a shy smile.

“Hi Lou,” Harry smiles back. “I’m Harry, but you already know that. Thanks for agreeing to meet me. I truly appreciate your help.” 

“It’s okay, Harold.”

“My name’s Harry.”

“So Harold. Tell me about your predicament and how I could possibly help you.”

“Well, as you know, I guess, from the email, I kinda lied to my mom and told her that I’m bringing my boyfriend to Thanksgiving dinner and, long story short, I don’t have a boyfriend to bring to Thanksgiving dinner.”

Louis finds Harry’s speech completely endearing. It’s all slow and thoughtful and the way he occasionally bit his lip when he stopped to take a break might be turning Louis on just a little bit, but nobody needs to know that. 

“So do you want me to be your boyfriend, Curly? How about any of that stuff that was in my listing? Need me to hit on some family members, or perhaps start a fist fight with some invasive cousins or weird uncles?” Harry tries to hide his giggles that Louis’ questions are generating and Louis counts it as a point in his book. “How about a debate over the most recent presidential election? I know that’s a hot topic. I can also pretend to be really, stupidly drunk, but I’m not gonna have any alcohol if that’s fine with you.” 

Harry is now openly laughing at Louis. “As amazing - and hilarious - as that sounds, Lou, I’m supposed to be impressing my mom and Nan and showing them that I’m not a complete loner.”

Louis nods, mischievous look in his eyes. “Ah, I see. You want me to be the super charming, caring boyfriend that is suuuuuper sappy and clingy and crazy about you.” Louis makes sure to raise is eyebrow and smirk at Harry, coating his words in lust. 

Louis notices that Harry swallows hard, his Adam’s apple bobbing. He croaks out a simple, “Um.” He clears his throats and continues with, “No need to put on a show. Just be normal, I guess.” 

Louis nods thoughtfully. “Gotcha. So do you-”

Harry’s phone ringing cuts Louis off and Harry throws an apologetic smile in Louis’ direction. He passes Louis a twenty dollar bill from his wallet, telling him to pick teas of his choice for both him and Harry and some snacks before getting up to answer his mom.

-

Harry wanders over to a more secluded area of the tea shop to answer his mom’s phone call. 

“Hi mom, how are you?” Harry smiles into the phone, voice warm, but still cautious. What could his mom possibly be calling Harry  _ now _ for? He’s busy. Louis is charming and beautiful and funny and Harry doesn’t want to be away from him for a second. 

“I’m great Harry, baby! I hope you’re doing well. Sorry if I’m interrupting anything important, dear, but I have some news.”

Harry stops his pacing, panic starting. “Is everything okay? Are you okay? Gemma? Robin? Nan or Pop?”

Anne lightly chuckles. “No, no. We’re fine, sweetheart.” Harry lets out a breath he didn’t know he was holding and continues pacing. “I know it’s a little short notice, but can you possibly drive home tomorrow, instead of actual Thanksgiving day? Gemma’s able to come down early and Nan just confirmed so could as well and don’t you just think it would be nice to come down early as well? Spend the wonderful holiday with your family?”

“Um, I have classes tomorrow,” Harry spits out. He doesn’t really know what to say. He’s a bit in shock. But he really does have class tomorrow. It’s just a short 8am class, but it’s still class. And what about Louis? Shit. 

“That’s fine sweetheart. You can come down around lunchtime or even the afternoon. Whatever fits you and your wonderful boyfriend’s schedule.”

Harry wants to die. Why has this become such a trend this holiday season? Ugh. 

“Um, I’ll have to have a chat with him. Make sure he doesn’t have any plans. I’ll text you back confirmation, mom. Love you, bye.” Harry rushes his goodbyes because he actually starting to panic a little bit. Louis is going to hate him. Spending not just Thanksgiving with Harry and his family, but three total days? Harry starts to prepare himself for Louis’ rejection as soon as his mom hangs up. 

He waits a few more minutes, taking deep calming breaths, before he decides to rejoin Louis at their booth. 

When Harry does finally sit down across from the very gorgeous man, he’s grateful to see a large, warm cup of tea in front of his seat. He picks up the cup and instantly relaxes when he drinks the perfectly prepared beverage. He places the drink on the table and closes his eyes, clearing his mind before he speaks to Louis again. 

The sudden feeling of Louis’ hand covering Harry’s on top of the table jerks Harry’s eyes open and he meets Louis’ eyes but doesn’t dare pull away.

Harry can see the deep genuine concern brewing in Louis’ beautiful baby blue eyes when he asks, “Everything alright, Harry?” 

Harry drops his eye’s from Louis’ and feels his cheeks heating up. It’s the first time Louis has called Harry is actual name, rather than Harold or Curly. It’s nice hearing his name roll off Louis’ tongue. 

Harry clears his throat and raises his eyes back up to Louis. “Uh, yeah. That was my mom on the phone, and yeah, before you ask, everything’s fine,” Harry chuckles a little. “She was just wondering if I could drive home tomorrow instead of actual Thanksgiving day.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah,” Harry sighs. “Gemma, my sister, is coming home tomorrow and so’s my nan and pop, my mom said. She thought it’d be nice to be able to spend the whole holiday week together,” Harry shrugs. 

“Oh.” 

“I’m sorry, Louis. I know it’s short notice and you probably have plans and I can’t possibly ask you spend three whole days with me and my family. You probably have school and work and friends, and what about your own family? Oh my god. I didn’t even think about that. I’m so, so, so sorry, Lou. You don’t have to do this anymore, I promise. It’s fine. I-”

Louis presses his pointer finger to Harry’s lips, making him shut up instantly. Harry’s eyes are wide in shock and his heart is beating fast and he’s kinda out of breath a little bit. 

“Calm down, Curly. It’s okay. Let me get this straight.” Harry nods and Louis removes his finger from Harry’s lips. Harry lets out a shaky breath and Louis clasps his hands on the table in front of him. 

“So. Tomorrow you’re driving to your parents’ house?”

Harry nods in confirmation. “Probably before noon, maybe like eleven. I have an hour long morning class and that’s it for the day. What about you?”

Louis laughs. “Do you not remember my post? I dropped out and also I’m 24 so I would’ve been graduated for a while now.”

“Oops, sorry,” Harry blushes.

Louis shrugs. “I can also get out of work easily. My boss Roy is a real softie and he and his husband love me.”

Now that Harry thinks about it, Louis  _ does _ look a little familiar. His beauty is unique, so he’s definitely never seen anyone who looks like Louis, but Louis just sorta confirmed Harry’s suspicions. 

“Wait! You work at Roy’s?” Harry asks excitedly, eyes lit up. 

“Yeah,” Louis asks suspiciously.

Harry laughs. “Oh my god! I thought you looked familiar. I go to Roy’s all the time! It’s my favorite bar. I’ve definitely seen you. I was actually just there Friday night with my best friend to see the new drag queen perform. She was spectacular. And I definitely know that I ordered a drink from you.” 

Louis joins in with Harry’s laughter. “Seriously? Yeah, I think I remember you! Long, curly hair - it’s kinda unforgettable.”

“You didn’t even look me in the eye! I think you rolled your eyes at me when you walked away,” Harry accuses with laughter. 

“I’m sorry. I can’t believe this! I was having a conversation with my friends and they were in the middle of convincing me to make that post on Craigslist for the Thanksgiving thing and I was cranky and bitter. Now look where that got me,” Louis chuckles, shaking his head in disbelief.

“That insane,” Harry intelligently comments. 

“Totally,” Louis agrees.

They sit in silence looking at each other for a few seconds before the break out into hearty laughs and breathless giggles. 

Louis is the first to calm down, face flush and a smile on his lips. “Don’t worry Harry, I’ll make the trip for you,” he says quietly. 

Harry’s eyes meets Louis’ and he tries to convey how much this means to him with just his eyes. “I genuinely appreciate this, Louis. I’m so happy Niall showed me your Craigslist post. You’re a lifesaver.”

“Of course, Harry. Now if I’m going to become your fake boyfriend for the next three days, I think we need to come up with a story.” That comment makes Harry laugh. 

Harry checks the time on his phone, knowing he has another class coming up soon. And shit, they’ve been sitting here chatting for a while. Harry needs to go now if he wants to make it to class on time. He doesn’t want to leave Louis’ company - he’s so fun to be around and Harry has found himself just sitting here admiring what he’s like. It’s been great and he doesn’t want to stop. 

“Hey Lou,” Harry sighs. “I’m so sorry, but I got class soon and I have to leave now if I want to make it on time.”

“Oh,” Louis replies, genuinely disappointed. Harry has to do something about this, he doesn’t want to see Louis upset. 

“Are you, uh, free tonight? You could come to my apartment and we can plan out what to say to everyone and stuff like that.” Harry tucks a loose strand of hair behind his hair out of nervousness. “I’ll cook us dinner and we can just get to know each other a little more. Only if you want to, though. I don’t, you know, I don’t wanna pressure you into it. Oh. Do you have work? It’s okay if you do. We can discuss details in the car ride tomorrow if that’s easier…” 

-

Harry’s rambling again. It’s so cute. Louis doesn’t have the heart to stop him, so he just listens and listen to Harry making a fool of himself.

“I’m rambling, aren’t I?” Harry blushes, breaking eye contact.

“Yes you are, Harold, but it’s cute.” And that causes Harry to blush even more. “I’ll definitely come over tonight. I don’t have work tonight,” Louis lies. It’s okay though, Louis will talk to Alex and see if they can switch shifts with him. Louis is scheduled to do the closing shift and Alex has the midday to early evening one. Also, Alex owes Louis a favor from that one time Louis did that one thing for them. Neither of them remember the specifics, just the fact that a favor is owed. 

Harry smiles, meeting Louis’ eyes again.  _ God _ , that dimple is going to simply melt Louis’ insides. “That’s great, Lou! I’ll see you tonight then. I really gotta go, though. It’s been great meeting you.”

The two stand up and exit the tea shop together into the November chill. They turn to each other, Louis twiddling his thumbs nervously, not sure how to say bye until Harry pulls him into a crushing hug.

They separate and once they say goodbye, Louis calls out to Harry to text him his address and Harry promises to do so. 

Louis stands planted in spot for another minute, feeling warm despite the cold temperature. He walks home feeling like he’s floating and he pulls out his phone to call Alex asking them to switch shifts. Thankfully Alex agrees to switch so Louis shoots a text to Zayn and Liam telling them he’s not coming home, that he’s working, and he sets course for Roy’s.

-

“You seem extra happy,” Shawn, Roy’s husband, comments from behind the bar when Louis walks in the door. “Also, I thought you were working closing tonight?”

Louis smiles, actually feeling the extra happiness that Shawn commented on. “Yeah, I am happy. Also, Alex and I switched shifts because something came up tonight.”

Shawn raises his eyebrow at that. “Does this something have to do with why you’re so giddy and happy?”

“Maaaybe,” Louis smiles, biting his bottom lip. “Stop looking at me like that, Shawn!”

Shawn laughs and angles his body towards the kitchen and calls out, “Roy, babe! Louis has a date tonight.”

Affronted, Louis yells back, “It is  _ not _ a date!” 

Roy instantly appears, his eyes a little misty. “Our little Lou? A date? Is this true, boo?” Roy runs to Louis’ side and pulls him into a bone crushing hug. “I’m so happy for you!”

Louis rolls his eyes. “It’s not a date, calm down.” 

“Oh,” Roy lets go of the hug a little disappointed. “Well that’s a shame. I bet he’s a lovely boy. You can call it whatever you,” Roy winks. “Now get to work, you are on the clock.”

Louis chuckles and replaces Shawn behind the bar and gets to work. 

A few minutes later he receives a text from Harry and Roy and Shawn keep making comments on the smile that just can’t escape Louis’ face.

_ Making pesto chicken with bowtie pasta tonight! Hope you’re hungry. We’ll also have leftovers that we can eat in the car tomorrow for lunch because it tastes just as good when it’s cold. See you soon, Lou! Excited to chat some more. H x _

-

Before Louis left work, Roy and Shawn forced him to take a bottle of wine from their personal stash they keep behind the bar for his date that’s not a date tonight. 

“It’ll woo him real hard,” Roy winked before pushing Louis out the door telling him to shower. 

Louis unlocks the door to his apartment and walks in, greeting Zayn who is lounging on the couch. “Liam in class or at work?” 

“Work. How was your day?”

“Good.” Louis walks into the kitchen, placing the wine in the fridge and grabbing a granola bar to snack on. Distractedly, he walks by Zayn into his bedroom with a wave of his hand and a comment about him taking a shower. 

All throughout work and his walk home, Louis has felt like he’s been floating - like walking on clouds. His thoughts were constantly gravitating to beautiful brown hair, and stunning green eyes. He continued texting Harry during his shift, Roy not really caring since not that many people were in the bar. Louis made sure to keep a close eye on the few patrons though, not wanting to forget about their needs while he was flirting with Harry via text. 

During Louis’ shower, he thinks about the super dumb, but cute and kinda funny, puns and knock-knock jokes Harry was texting him all day. 

_ Hey Louis, did you know a steak pun is a rare medium well done? x _

**ha ha, i get it curly.. good one**

_ Do you know the world’s scariest plant? _

**uhh the ones that eat u???**

_ bamBOO! xx _

**i hate u**

_ No you don’t! x _

**i dont xx**

_ Do you want to hear some puns about ghosts?! _

**no.**

_ That’s the spirit! x _

**i hate u :)**

\- 

Louis had a hard time deciding what to wear to Harry’s tonight. He didn’t care earlier when he was going to meet him at Tea Bag, but now that he knows what Harry looks like, he feels the need to dress to impress. So after debating for thirty minutes what to wear after his shower, Louis settled on a simple, signature pair of black skinny jeans (not too skinny though, since he wants to eat whatever delicious meal Harry has prepared) and a soft red sweater that dips low enough to show off his collarbones. 

But now that he is standing in front of Harry’s apartment door, bottle of wine in hand, and a large smile in place, he’s starting question everything. He knocks on the door before his nerves force him to go home. When Harry opens the door though, with a smile that matches the one on Louis’ face, Louis instantly relaxes. 

“Come in,” Harry says a little breathlessly. Louis can tell his eyes are sweeping across his exposed collarbones. 

Louis removes his shoes and jacket once he steps inside, handing the bottle of wine to Harry with a smile, which Harry thanks him for. Louis follows Harry into the kitchen and sits down on one of the stools that’s at the island counter. 

“So,” Louis smirks, “what’s cooking, good looking?”

Harry, standing at the stove, stops stirring whatever’s in the pot, turns to face Louis and automatically bursts into laughter. Louis soon follows him.

“I hope you appreciate that!” Louis laughs. “I had to google a good joke to compete with all your pun text messages! That was the best I could find and I practiced it all day.”

“Aw Lou, that’s so cute. It was a good attempt, but you’ll never beat the master of puns.”

“I guess not,” Louis chuckles. His face is starting to hurt after all this smiling and laughing. Harry’s presence his causing Louis physical pain, but he loves it. “Anyway, do you need any help with dinner?”

“Nah,” Harry shakes his head. “It’s almost done anyway. Wanna grab some plates and utensils?”

Louis hops up off of the chair and searches for said plates and utensils, crying in victory when he finds them. He also comes across a few wine glasses, which he pulls one out for Harry, reaching for a regular glass for himself. 

A few minutes later, Harry and Louis are sitting across from each other at the island, Harry with a full glass of wine, Louis with a glass of water, and delicious food piled on their plates.

“This is amazing, Harry. Thank you so much.” The food is seriously so good Louis can’t believe it. “Oh god,” he moans, taking another bite. “Why can’t my roommates cook like this?”

Harry blushes. “It’s nothing, really. Grew up helping my mom in the kitchen and even worked in a bakery when I was in high school.”

“Tell me about your family,” Louis smiles, wanting to hear more about the people Harry loves. “You know, cause your boyfriend needs to know and stuff…” he adds, blushing. 

“Well my mom is just amazing, her name is Anne. She recently remarried a few years ago to Robin. He’s great to her and I can really see he loves her. The wedding was beautiful,” Harry says eyes shining, the adoration for his mom visible. “She loves doing work with charities and stuff along those lines. I look up to her so much.”

“She sounds amazing, Harry. Now tell me about that sister you mentioned. Gemma, right?” 

Harry laughs. “Yeah, Gems. She’s a right handful, but the perfect older sister. She and her boyfriend Sam live in Washington, D.C. They do some fancy stuff with the Smithsonian museums. She’s so smart, it scares me sometimes.”

“Oh wow, she sounds a little intimidating,” Louis grimaces.

“Yeah, she totally is. She’s going to be so hard on you at first, I’m sorry. But then she’ll warm up and you guys will be fine, promise.” 

Louis laughs. “We’ll see.”

They pair eats in silence for a few more minutes before Harry clears his throat and brings up the inevitable. “How long should we say we’ve been together?”

Louis chokes a little bit on the piece of chicken he’s chewing and Harry’s eyes go wide in alarm. Louis puts out a hand to stop Harry from coming over to Louis to do the Heimlich or something equally stupid. He takes a few sips of his water and clears his throat.

“I’m fine,” he croaks. “You just surprised me a little bit.”

“I’m sorry,” Harry laughs. Louis scowls at Harry. His pain is not funny. 

Louis thinks about Harry’s question though. How long should they pretend they’ve been together? One month or a few weeks seem a little too short of a relationship to bring your boyfriend to such a large family function like Thanksgiving. They could always say three to four months, but Louis would be the type of boyfriend who remembers the exact time and date of their first date because he’s that sappy of a person.

They don’t want to say anything too long because Harry’s family will be suspicious. They’ll probably ask all sorts of questions like “Why haven’t you told us sooner?” or “Did Harry meet your family, Louis?” and Louis is not prepared for any form of that kind of interrogation. 

“Maybe we should say three months? Or four?” Harry says thoughtfully, breaking Louis’ concentration. “But we have to come up with a specific date because my mom knows I’m definitely the type of guy to remember the exact date,” Harry blushes.

Louis giggles. “I’m definitely the same way, it’s okay. How about August 21st? We technically met today, November 21st, so why don’t we push it back a few months?”

Nodding thoughtfully, Harry adds, “Yeah and a friend introduced us. ‘Cause, ya know, Niall showed me your Craigslist post, so we can spin it that he set us up. So we had our first date at Tea Bag on August 21st and we’ve been together ever since. How does that sound?”

“Perfect,” Louis smiles. “Pretty foolproof and easy to remember. I like it. Will anyone ask about like our first kiss or whatever? Because I know my nosey sisters would ask me that if I were to bring home a mysterious boyfriend.”

Harry giggles in response. Louis is completely starstruck. Harry’s giggle is so cute, Louis could listen to only that for the rest of his life. And - where did  _ that _ come from? The rest of his life? Has Louis had too much wine? Obviously not. Maybe he’s just a little drunk on Harry’s presence. 

“My nan would definitely ask that. Oh! Let me tell you about my nan real quick.” Louis shrugs, letting Harry continue. “Well, she’s great. I owe a lot to her. I used to spend a lot of time with her when I was younger and she was always my biggest cheerleader. I even came out to her first, which is why she’s always teasing me so much about the whole boyfriend topic.”

“I’m excited to meet her. Maybe she can tell me some embarrassing stories about young little gay Harry,” Louis smirks mischievously. 

“Oh no,” Harry groans. “Please no! Once you get her started, she’ll never stop.” 

-

After dinner, Harry feels confident with how well everything will go this week. Harry is amazed at how well him and Louis just click. Their personalities mesh well and Louis just seems to pick up on all the cues Harry is giving, easily making fun of Harry and causing him to blush constantly. But Louis also has this soft and gentle side that’s under all the teasing that truly cares whether or not he genuinely hurt Harry’s feelings when he laughs at the stupid mistakes Harry makes. 

Harry is positive that Louis will be the best fake boyfriend ever. 

Over dinner they finalized some other important details such as where their fake first kiss happen. Louis suggested that they keep it simple.

“How about our first kiss happened after our first date? I walked you home and kissed you goodbye on your doorstep. Romantic, ain’t it?” Louis winked.

Harry had felt something stir inside of him and he blushed. “Yeah, romantic. Nan will gush over how cute it is.” 

They also talked about what they did on their fake three month anniversary, which in technicality, is the first day they met, but Harry had a feeling his family would get a kick out of hearing the story.

“How about this, Lou,” Harry giggled. He’s had way too much wine by now. “I took you to this really fancy French restaurant-”

“On a college student’s budget?” Louis cocked his head. “Could you seriously afford that, H?”

Harry felt his face heating up. “Stop it. I definitely could, just no dessert or wine.”

Louis snorted at that.

“And after dinner we would go to this empty field that I found my freshman year and stargaze and drink cheap wine. Well, I would drink the wine. It would’ve been cold, but we’d be snuggled up nice and close,” Harry said wistfully. 

“Yeah, then I would’ve fucked you nice and slow right there and told you how beautiful you look under the starlight,” Louis suggested, equally as wistful as Harry.

Harry’s face was already bright red, but what Louis had said probably could’ve set Harry’s face on fire. Harry whimpered at Louis’ words, but giggled, trying not to show Louis how affected he was. 

“Louis, we can’t say that in front of my family!” Harry squealed. 

They wrapped up their conversation shortly after that, Harry downing a few glasses of water to somewhat balance out his tipsiness. Harry wrapped Louis into a hug, thanking him once again for all his help, reminding him of what time he would pick Louis up tomorrow, and then sent him on his way home. 

Now, Harry is starfished on his bed, completely sober and completely dead. Louis’ words are still running through his mind, keeping him on edge. He’s imagining the way Louis’ soft hands would trail up and down his torso, the way he could pull on Harry’s hair, how his fingers would slowly push in and pull out, making Harry feel all kinds of things. 

Harry reprimands himself for imaging this. Louis isn’t his boyfriend, he’s barely a friend right now. They literally just met this morning. Harry admits he has a blossoming crush on Louis, but he’s going to have to squash those feelings if he wants Thanksgiving to be perfect. 

Harry sighs, dragging himself out of bed to shower before he goes to sleep for the night. 

He may or may not pull himself off to the thoughts of Louis fucking him under the stars. That’s a secret only Harry’s prized collection of shampoos and conditioners knows about. 

Harry doesn’t know how he got to this point. When he first met Louis he was completely blown away by this beauty, of course, who wouldn’t? His hair is soft and lays as a fringe across his forehead. His eyes are a stunning blue, slightly changing shades depending on his mood. Louis’ bone structure, though. His cheekbones are carved by the gods and Harry wants to suck a thousands bruises into his elegant collarbones. 

Harry was blown away by Louis’ beauty every time he would order a drink from him at Roy’s, but now, seeing him up close and personal, in clear lighting, makes Harry unsteady on his feet.

Louis’ appearance isn’t the only attractive thing about him. The way he engages fully into conversation and the way he fiercely pays attention to every word Harry says makes Harry swoon. Harry’s never had anyone’s full undivided attention on him in the way Louis focuses on him. Louis truly cares about helping Harry out during this holiday and Harry couldn’t be anymore grateful.

And later that night, Louis may or may not make a few appearances in his dreams. There are no compromising positions, like he was imaging early in the night in the shower, only soft kisses, cuddles, and love declarations.

It’s one of the best night sleeps Harry’s had in awhile. 

-

“Zaaaayn,” Louis whines, “I don’t know what to pack! How do you impress the family of your fake boyfriend?”

Last night, when Louis got home, he briefed Liam and Zayn on everything he and Harry had talked about (except for that one part where Louis exposed how much he wanted to fuck Harry - oops). Liam had thought it was a very, very bad idea, but Zayn just thoughtfully hummed and nodded his head. Liam was shocked at Zayn’s lack of concern, but Zayn just shrugged and said Louis could do whatever he wanted to do.

That’s why Zayn is his favorite. 

“Just dress how you normally do, Lou. It’ll be fine,” Zayn says from Louis’ bed, where he’s lounging, scrolling through something on his phone. 

“But I really wanna impress his family, Z! You don’t understand,” Louis huffs from his closet’s floor, where he’s sitting surrounded by piles of clothes. 

Zayn really doesn’t understand. Louis wants to impress Harry’s family, not because he personally wants to make a good impression on them, but he wants to show them that Harry is worthy of a good boyfriend and that Harry deserves someone who is good to him and his family.

It’s all for Harry. Louis just needs to remember that, which means he should really stop daydreaming about those beautiful pink lips and how they should be wrapped around his-

“Louis,” Zayn interrupts. “You literally just met him yesterday, calm down.”

Louis blushes. “Fine,” he mumbles, gathering the pile of clothes that’s on his right, standing up and returning to his bed where his duffel bag is resting next to Zayn’s leg. 

Zayn sits up and makes grabby hands. “Lemme see what you picked out.”

Louis stands there with his hands on his hips as he watches Zayn rifle through the few pairs of black skinny jeans, tshirts, and fall-colored sweaters he picked out. 

Zayn finally nods in approval. “Good picks Lou. You’ll blow ‘em away,” he winks.

Louis rolls his eyes, stuffing the clothes into the duffel bag, then wandering into his bathroom to collect his toiletries. 

Harry had assured Louis that they’ll be leaving Thanksgiving night so Louis tries to packs light, knowing he won’t need much. He’s still a chronic overpacker though, nothing can stop that. 

Louis rejoins Zayn in his bedroom and adds the toiletries to his duffel bag. He glances at the clock, noting that it reads 10:15am. Zayn follows his eyes and looks at the time as well. 

“When’s he picking you up?” 

“Harry said eleven. He seems like a pretty punctual person so I guess I should go shower and get changed now.” 

During Louis’ shower he thinks about the upcoming few days. He hasn’t been home to see his own family in quite some time, so it’ll be a little sad being around someone else’s family during the holiday season, but at least he’ll be in a homey environment rather than his own empty apartment. It’ll be nice getting some home cooked food and to be dotted on a mom and grandparents. 

He thinks about how far him and Harry will have to go to prove their relationship status? Will they have to kiss? 

Louis accidentally swallows some water in shock.  _ Shit _ , will they have to kiss? Maybe a few kiss to the cheek? As Louis chokes and coughs on the water, he prays that Harry’s not into public displays of affection. Louis won’t be able to survive the next few days if he has to receive fake gestures of love from Harry when he’s desperately pining for the real thing. 

  
  


He is also concerned that they won't be able to convince Harry's family that they are an actual couple. They've probably seen how Harry acts around his real boyfriends so will his stilted and unsure actions around Louis be a dead giveaway? Will Gemma look into Harry's eyes and notice the absence of that special glint that someone usually has when they're with their significant other? Will Louis’ lack of knowledge concerning things Harry likes and his little quirks show Anne that they're not actually together?

Louis gets out of the shower before the never ending stream of questions give him a panic attack and retrieves his phone from the bathroom counter, typing out a text message to Harry. 

**beard or no beard? shave? trim? heeeeelp**

_ I can't help you out if you don't show me! H x _

Louis rolls his eyes at Harry's reply but opens up his camera anyway and snaps a selfie to send to Harry. 

_ I love the scruff, but maybe you should go with clean shaven so by the time Thanksgiving dinner rolls around you'll be sporting a nice little scruffy look. x _

_ Also… Are you shirtless?? _

**of course im shirtless curly. i just got out of the shower**

**why u wanna save it for the wank bank?? ;)))**

_ Fuck off. H x _

Louis laughs out loud at his and Harry's exchange. He loves that he's so comfortable around this boy and that they can freely joke about that kind of thing. They are on their way to becoming friends and Louis loves that because he doesn't want Harry to stop existing after Thanksgiving. Hopefully they will be friends for a long time. Long enough to look back on Thanksgiving 2016 and laugh about the time they pretended to be dating. 

Louis reaches for some shaving cream and a new razor, ready to remove his facial hair. 

-

“Holy shit, Lou,” Zayn says when Louis walks into the living carrying his duffel bag. “You look actually really good.”

“Wow Zayn. You sound genuinely shocked. I do know how to clean up.” 

“You know what I mean, dickhead. You haven't put this much effort into something like this in a while.”

Louis just shrugs in response. Zayn isn't wrong. Louis does look good and he did put in a lot of effort. His hair is tousled and soft across his forehead and his jaw is completely free of any hairs, which truly accentuates his cheekbones. He's wearing a long sleeved white shirt that is the tiniest bit see through, which exposes some of his tattoos. He's paired the shirt with some skinny classic blue jeans since he only packed skinny black jeans in his duffel. 

Liam walks into the living room, appearing from the kitchen and scaring Louis. 

“Oi, Payno! When'd you get here?”

“When you were in the shower.” Liam stops in his tracks and looks Louis up and down. “Damn Tommo, you look good. I'm proud of you.”

Louis huffs and crosses his arms over his chest. “Why is everyone so shocked that I  _ can  _ put effort into the way I look?!”

“Because you normally don't,” Zayn points out. 

“He's right,” Liam agrees, sitting down next to Zayn on the couch. 

Louis ignores his friends and walks towards the closet to pick out a coat, figuring that Harry would arrive at any moment now. He slips on some Adidas sneakers and pulls on a brown suede bomber jacket that was a birthday present from his sisters last year. 

As he’s pulling together some last minutes items, he overhears Liam and Zayn talking in the living room.

“Why’s he doing this?” Liam whispers.

“I don’t know, but despite the reason, he looks happier. So take that how you want.”

“I just don’t understand, is he trying to woo the guy? He’s going to pretend to be his fake boyfriend when he actually might wanna be his real boyfriend?”

Zayn snorts. “It’s Louis. He doesn’t even know what he wants. But I’m happy he’s not going to be alone on Thanksgiving this year. It would suck, especially since he hasn’t seen the girls in a while.”

It hurts, hearing all of this from his best friends, but it’s mostly true. Louis doesn’t know what he wants and if he did know, he’d probably be too afraid to go after it. All he knows is that he’s thankful for Harry coming into his life. Yeah, he’s pretending to be his boyfriend and he’s getting a free Thanksgiving meal, but Harry and him have the potential to be really,  _ really _ good friends and that feeling only comes around a few times in your life.

_ Hiiii Lou, I’m here! Want me to come up to give you a hand? H x _

**nah H its fine, i’ll be down in a sec x**

“Hey losers, I gotta go!” Louis yells.

Zayn and Liam join Louis in the entrance hall of their apartment and smother him with hugs. 

“Have a good trip and Thanksgiving. Text me if you need anything or for some reason something goes wrong and you need to be picked up early,” Liam mumbles into Louis’ shoulders.

“You’re gonna be in fucking Erie, Liam? How will you help me?” 

“Shh, forget about the details. The fact that I offered is what matters.”

“Shut up Payno.”

“Okay,” Liam whispers as he places a tiny kiss on Louis’ shoulder.

“Have a good week, Lou. See you on Monday,” Zayn says, dropping a kiss to Louis’ temple.

“Love you guys,” Louis whispers. This quick goodbye is getting too emotional too fast. “Now have a safe trip to Erie. Tell your moms I say hi and all that jazz. Now let go of me.”

They break the hug and Louis pats down his pockets, making sure he has his wallet, keys, and phone. They all yell out one last goodbye and then Louis walks out the door. 

-

Harry’s panicking. He sees Louis coming out of his apartment building and he looks absolutely amazing. Harry has no clue how he’s going to survive the next few days with Louis if he’s going to continue looking this damn good everyday. 

He flexes his fingers around the steering wheel, hands suddenly clammy. He takes a deep breath as Louis opens the door to the backseat, throwing in his duffel bag. Louis moves to the passenger side door and lets himself in. 

This is the moment Harry dies. He looks at Louis and just takes him in. Everything about him is stunning. His hair looks super soft, the sunglasses he’s wearing frame his face perfectly,  _ and _ he’s clean shaven. Harry internally whimpers as his eyes rake over Louis’ cheekbones and jawline; they’re sharp enough to cut a man. 

His eyes quickly scan Louis’ outfit. This morning Harry thought he’d try to impress Louis with his fashion sense, but Louis is the one who has him beat. The simple beauty of Louis’ slightly see-through white shirt and blue jeans are absolutely more stunning than Harry’s cheetah print blouse and black skinny jeans. 

“Hey there,” Louis chirps, making Harry snap his eyes back up to Louis’ face. All the panic and tension flows out of Harry’s body when he sees Louis’ bright smile and the hint of eye crinkles around the edges of his sunglasses.

“Hi,” Harry breathes out, pasting on his own bright smile. He clears his throat as he wipes his sweaty palms on his thighs. “Are you ready?”

“As I’ll ever be,” Louis laughs, pulling out his seatbelt and buckling up. 

-

It’s not a long drive to Anne’s house, but Louis ends up falling asleep anyway. Harry is completely endeared. The music on the radio is softly filtering throughout the car, low enough not to wake up Louis. Harry hums along, occasionally sneaking glances at the sleeping beauty next to him. 

Each time Harry glances in the rearview or side mirrors, he finds his reflection staring back at him, but with bright smile on his face. 

Harry’s a little surprised to see himself this happy. He’s been living a pretty simple life for the past few years; he’s been going through the motions. He’s happy when he’s with his friends and when he’s with his family, but he’s always felt like he was missing something that was just for him. A happiness that he could unconditionally receive and give right back.

Throughout the car ride Harry wants to believe that Louis could be that person. 

The next few days are going to equally amazing and horrible, but Harry would go through this experience forever if it meant he would be able to spend a fraction of the time with Louis. 

Harry knows they’re about twenty minutes from his mom’s house so he starts gently nudging Louis awake.

“Louis. Hey, babe. Lou, wake up.”

Louis groans and stretches in his seat, yawning. “Sorry I fell asleep on ya, Haz.”

The new nickname tingles Harry’s insides a little bit. “It’s okay, Lou. But we’re about fifteen minutes away and I just wanted to wake you up so you’re not all groggy when we arrive.”

“Thanks,” he says with another yawn. “Are you excited to see your family?”

Harry blushes. “Yeah I am, actually. Even though they’re not super far away it’s hard to visit often because of school.”

“Do you go to NYU?”

“Yeah, I do. It’s great. My best friend slash roommate also goes there.”

Louis nods thoughtfully. “My best friends, and also roommates, go to NYU too. I used to, before, ya know, I dropped out.”

Harry hums. “What made you drop out?” The second the words leave Harry’s mouth, Louis freezes up and tension fills the car. “Sorry. You don’t have to answer that.”

Louis nods and stays silent.

“Sorry. I didn’t meant to like, trigger anything,” Harry frowns. 

Louis laughs “Stop frowning, Curly. You’ll get wrinkles. And it’s okay, I just don’t really wanna talk about it right now. Later.”

“Later,” Harry echoes with a small smile. 

“What’s your favorite color?” Harry asks out of nowhere.

“Uh, green?”

“Are you asking or telling me?”

Louis laughs. “Fuck off. It’s green.”

A small smile overtakes Harry’s face. “Mine is blue. But not one specific shade. I like how the color is able to change. Kinda like the sky, you know? Depending the mood, or well, the weather, the shade of blue changes. I like it a lot.”

Harry and Louis continue talking about little likes and dislikes as they finish the drive to Anne’s and a few minutes they’re pulling into the driveway. 

Harry’s nerves are a little on edge, but he thinks he can handle this. It  _ is _ the first time he’s bring home a boyfriend and it kinda sucks that Louis is not actually his boyfriend, but  _ god _ , does he wish he was. He takes a deep breath, tightening his grip on the wheel. He closes his eyes, trying to calm his racing heart.

He feels Louis’ hand rest on his on top of the steering wheel and instantly the tension flows out of his body. 

“Hey H, it’s okay. Right? No need to be nervous. You got this. We both do.” Louis smiles are Harry comfortingly. The next thing Harry knows, Louis is reaching over the center console and planting a small kiss on Harry’s right cheek. 

“C’mon babe. Time to meet the parents,” Louis giggles. He opens his door and pulls himself out of the car and goes to retrieve his duffel bag.

Harry pulls himself together. His cheek where Louis’ lips briefly touched is tingling, but Harry can’t show that it affected him. If he did that, how will he survive the next few days?

Harry finally pulls himself out of the car and follows Louis’ actions of grabbing his bag from the back seat. Once they both have their bags hauled up on their shoulders, they meet in front of Harry’s car.

“You ready?” Louis asks, hopeful smile on his face.

“I guess,” Harry shrugs. 

Louis pulls Harry into a hug and he’s a little shocked at first, but he soon sinks into the comfort of Louis’ arms, wrapping his own around his fake boyfriend. 

“Thanks again, Lou,” Harry says. He leans in and pecks Louis on the lips. His eyes widen and Louis tenses up as they both realize what Harry just did. 

“Sorry, sorry. I should’ve asked. ‘M sorry,” Harry mumbles regretfully, trying to break out of Louis’ arms.

“No, hey, Harry. It’s okay.” Louis pulls at Harry’s chin, turning his head so Harry’s looking at him. “We  _ are _ boyfriends,” he smirks. “We have to get used to it, I guess.” Louis shrugs, hugging Harry tighter and meeting his lips for one more quick kiss.

“C’mon Curly, let’s go meet your family.” 

Harry leads Louis to the door by the hand and he feels like he’s floating on the clouds. He composes himself as he faces the door and reaches out for the doorknob. He pulls Louis behind him into the house he grew up in shouting out a, “Hey mom, we’re home!” 

-

“We’re in the kitchen, baby! Drop your bags off in your room and then come say hi!” Louis hears being shouted from somewhere deep in the house. 

Louis looks around the entrance hall, noticing that there are many framed photos decorating the wall. The wall on his left is covered in a collage of what looks like to photos from someone’s wedding and the wall opposite it has a large quote on it that reads “Home is where the Heart is.” 

Harry tugs on Louis’ hand, prompting him to follow him up the stairs. Louis is glad Harry hasn’t let go of his hand yet as he’s feeling a little intimidated and he hasn’t even met the family yet. 

They make it to Harry’s room and dump their stuff on the bed. 

“I’m gonna run to the bathroom real quick,” Harry says, pointing his thumb towards the hallway. “Feel free to look around and take a breather before we head downstairs.” Louis nods in acknowledgement. 

Louis wanders around the perimeter of Harry’s room, examining in the little bits and pieces of photos and posters that are still left up. Most of them are pictures where Harry is posing with friends and the posters feature a wide variety of bands. 

Louis sits down on Harry’s bed, composing himself, when a thought hits him. He realizes that he’s going to have to share this bed with Harry.  _ Shit _ . Why didn’t he think of this ahead of time?

Harry is extremely beautiful and if Louis already has issues keeping his hands to himself, how is going to control himself now? He just wants to cuddle Harry all the time and hold his hand, pet his hair, trace his tattoos… Louis is going to go certifiably insane. 

Harry reappears in the doorway. “You ready?” he asks, quirking his eyebrow, with a small, worried smile. 

Taking a deep breath, Louis stands up and claps his hands together. “Ready as I’ll ever be, boyfriend.”

Harry giggles. “C’mon then, boyfriend.” 

Harry grabs Louis’ hand and pulls him down the steps and through the house into the kitchen where they find who Louis assumes to be Anne and Robin, Gemma and Sam, and Harry’s nan and pop. 

“Harry!” Anne cries out, running over to hug her son. She turns to Louis and pulls him into a bone crushing hug once she lets go of Harry. “Who might you be, young man? Oh my, you’re so handsome,” she gushes.

Harry chuckles. “Everyone, Louis Tomlinson. Louis, everyone.” 

Louis blushes and gives a small wave. “Hi everyone.”

He surveys the room, taking in the scene. They’re all sat around a table in the kitchen, mixed-matched chairs indicating there weren’t enough chairs in the kitchen so they’re borrowing from other rooms of the house. Each person is paired with a mug, which Louis assumes is either filled with coffee, tea, or hot chocolate. 

Robin is sitting at the head of the kitchen table, empty seat next to him where Louis guesses that’s where Anne was sitting. Robin is a large, friendly looking man with glasses resting on the bridge of his nose and he’s aiming a small friendly smile at Louis. 

Next to Robin is Gemma and Sam. Gemma is stunning. She has impeccable straight platinum blonde hair and a red color painting her lips. She’s looking at Louis skeptically and when Louis meets her eyes, a chill runs through his body and his eyes divert to Harry and Gemma’s nan and pop who are sitting across the table from Gemma from Sam. 

Anne’s parents appear to be the typical grandparents. Harry’s nan has a rainbow scarf tied around her neck and she’s leaning into her husband, whispering and giggling into his ear. 

Louis turns his attention back to Anne and is blown away by how much Harry looks like her. 

“Hi Mrs. Twist. Thank you for allowing me to come for the holiday,” Louis greets politely. 

Louis hears Gemma snort from across the room as Nan coos.

“Oh Louis, stop it. Please call me Anne, dear. It’s a blessing that you’re able to join us for Thanksgiving. It’s my favorite holiday and I’m thankful that you’re able to share it with us. Please, take a seat, join us. Tea? Harry said you liked tea.” 

“Yes please, thank you.” Louis swallows thickly as he and Harry take a seat. Anne’s words made Louis a little dizzy, reminding him so much of his own mother. 

“You okay?” Harry whispers into his ear. Louis gives a quick nod in response. 

Harry turns to his grandparents. “Nan, Pop, this is Louis, my boyfriend,” he blushes. 

Nan reaches out and clasps Louis’ hand in hers. “It’s an honor to meet you, young man.”

“Thank you. I’ve heard a lot of great things about you,” Louis replies genuinely.

Next to her, Pop snorts and gruffly says, “I don’t know about that.”

Harry giggles next to Louis. 

Gemma clears her throat. “So Louis, tell us about yourself.”

“Gemma!” Harry hisses. 

“What, baby brother? I'm just curious about your significant other,” she smiles mischievously as Harry glares at her. 

“Yes Louis,” Anne adds. “If you don't mind, I would love to know all about the man who's making my baby happy.”

Harry and Louis simultaneously blush. 

“Well I'm twenty-four. Um, I live with my two best friends Liam and Zayn who are also together. I work at a bar called Roy’s. I have for awhile. Roy and his husband Shawn were kinda mentors to me during a rough patch in my life a few years ago and they offered me a job,” Louis shrugs. 

Nan’s eyes light up. “Roy? Roy and Shawn Turner?”

“Yeah you know them?” Louis asks, hoping this changes the subject away from him. 

“Of course I do my dear! Gerald here,” she points to Pop, “and I helped them open up that bar! I was good childhood friends with Roy and I saw how much homophobia he had experienced when he first came out to his family and introduced his now partner to them. I was actually the first person he came out to,” she sniffles softly, trying to hold in her tears. “I saw how happy Shawn made Roy so when my little Harry came out to me I prayed everyday he would find someone special who would make him happy too.”

Everyone at the table is quiet. Harry and Louis are a little teary, knowing firsthand the type of hate Roy has felt in his life and Gerald is looking at his wife with love and pride. 

Louis clears his throat and tries to hold back tears. “Can I hug you, Nan?” he croaks out. 

Nan smiles softly and reaches out as Louis stands to come embrace her. Harry follows Louis and the three of them just hold each other. 

“My first father actually left me, my mom, and my four little sisters when I came out to them,” Louis admits once he and Harry return to their seats, swallowing hard. 

A tiny gasp comes from Harry. “Lou-”

“That's why my mom’s favorite holiday is Thanksgiving. She's so thankful that she was able to get through so much and stay strong for me and my sisters. Now she's with her new husband Dan and they had twins together and she's happy. So everything is fine now.”

“Are you happy?” Gemma asks, genuinely curious. 

Louis doesn't get a chance to answer her because Anne asks another question. 

“Louis, love, if you don't mind me asking… Why aren't you spending the holiday with your family then?”

Louis can feel Harry turn to look at him, obvious concern on his face and curiosity in his eyes. This is one of the things they never talked about - why Louis made the Craigslist post to begin with. 

Louis clears his throat. “I've uh, actually been struggling for a little while now. I couldn't afford a round trip train ticket to make it home for Thanksgiving if I wanted to make the trip for my birthday and Christmas.”

“When's your birthday?” Robin asks. 

“It's actually Christmas Eve. December 24th.”

“Aw, that's lovely,” Anne says. “But why would you need a train ticket, darling?”

“Oh. I'm actually from Philadelphia and my family still lives there and the easiest way to get home is using the train,” Louis shrugs. 

“Philadelphia?!” Harry whispers. No one seems to notice except for Gemma who raises her eyebrow at the fake couple. 

“Aw, sweetheart, I'm so sorry,” Anne says. I'm glad you are able to spend the holidays here with us then.”

Louis reaches under the table and entwines his fingers with Harry's, squeezing. “I'm glad as well. Very thankful.”

-

Harry and Louis spend the rest of the time sitting in the living room socializing with the family. Robin and Anne asking questions about school and Gemma and Sam asking about his social life. Louis is just content to sit around and take in the conversation, cuddled up under Harry’s arm, head on his shoulder, feet perched on the coffee table in front of him, feet clad in fuzzy socks, and a warm mug of tea in his hands.

They’re waiting for the pizza they ordered to arrive when Louis finally hears his name brought up in conversation. His eyes have slowly been drooping shut and not even hearing his name perks him up.

“So H, how did you and Louis meet? How long have you been together?” Louis thinks he hears Gemma say. 

“Babe, I think Louis is sleeping, don’t talk about him,” Sam laughs. 

“‘M awaaake…” Louis mumbles, not really awake. 

Harry chuckles above Louis. He pets Louis’ hair down whispering, “Sh, babe it’s okay. You just rest.”

Nan coos from her position next to Pop on the loveseat. 

“Niall actually set us up. We’ve actually just celebrated three months yesterday.”

Louis smiles at that, burrowing further into Harry. If he imagines hard enough, maybe this will all be real when Louis wakes up. He’ll actually be dating Harry for real and meeting his family for real.

Anne gasps. “Three months? Baby, why didn’t you tell me?”

Harry fidgets a little. “Well, we kinda wanted to keep it to ourselves for a while, see where it goes.”

Gemma hums. “I understand, H.” Louis can feel Gemma’s eyes scanning him. “So did you two do anything special for your three month anniversary?”

“I took Lou to this fancy French place.”

“On a student budget you could afford that?” Gemma snorts.

“Heeey!” Harry whines. “I saved up. We didn’t have an appetizer, dessert, or wine. Okay? We drove out to a field and cuddled and drank cheap wine and did, uh, other stuff. We chilled.” Louis knows Harry well enough to know for sure he’s blushing right now, as he stumbles over his words.

Louis giggles into Harry. 

“H? Can you take my tea before I spill it. I can’t finish it,” Louis mumbles.

“Of course, babe.” Harry pulls the mug out of Louis’ fingers, placing it on the side table on his left. Not wanting to keep Louis’ hands empty though, he slips his hands into Louis’. Louis glows under the attention and love he’s receiving from his fake boyfriend.

The pizza arrives soon enough and Nan suggests eating in the living room to keep the cozy environment, but Louis knows it was secretly for his sake.

Everyone had a long day of travel so conversation is stilted for the rest of night and everybody goes to bed soon enough. 

Harry and Louis drag their feet up the stairs and into Harry’s bed. Very little words are spoken between them as they pull their duffels off the bed and throw on pajamas. Luckily Harry has a queen bed, so they don’t have to cram into a twin.

They offer each other a simple goodnight and are asleep as soon as their heads hit the pillow. 

-

“Good morning, darling,” Harry whispers to Louis. He’s standing at his kitchen, making breakfast as Louis walks into the kitchen, bare feet pounding on the hardwood floor.

Louis walks over to Harry and hugs him from behind, leaving small kisses on the back of his neck. 

“Hello sunshine,” Louis rasps in his morning voice. He discreetly rubs his groin across Harry’s butt, causing Harry’s own groin to perk up in interest. 

Louis pulls away though, causing Harry to pout. He returns though, completing another slow grind against Harry, which pulls a small moan out of Harry’s throat. 

Harry sags in disappointment when Louis moves to refrigerator to pull out orange juice. He starts prepping some bread, putting slices in the toaster and pulling out nutella for himself and strawberry jam for Harry. 

Louis and Harry work in harmony as they start setting up the island counter for breakfast. When everything is out and ready, they meet in the middle of the kitchen for a passionate kiss.

Their embrace is interrupted by someone knocking on the door, but Louis doesn’t seem to hear it as he continues kissing Harry’s neck. 

“Babe, don’t you hear the door?” Harry asks. 

Louis’ only reply is to grab Harry’s chin and pull him down for more mouth searing kisses. 

The knocking only gets louder and louder as Louis’ kisses get softer and softer. 

“Harry, Louis, wake up!” Harry hears Gemma yell. Gemma? What’s she doing in Harry’s kitchen?

Oh. 

Harry’s not in his kitchen. He’s dreaming. He’s in bed, in his childhood room, with a semi hard dick, a Louis attached to his back, and a Gemma banging on his door.

“We’re awake,” Harry replies groggily. 

“Good,” Harry hears Gemma say, as she finally leaves them in peace.

“No we’re not,” Louis mumbles back, digging his face into the curls at the back of Harry’s neck. 

“Sh, don’t let her hear you say that or she’ll return and kick down the door.” Louis giggles at this as Harry turns around to face him.

Harry smiles, taking in Louis’ sleep rumpled appearance. His hair is sticking up in various directions and pillow creases mark up his slightly sleep-swollen face. Harry guesses he doesn’t look much better. 

“Good morning,” he whispers, desperately trying to block his dream out of his head in this moment. He reminds himself that he's not allowed to lean forward and rub his nose against Louis’. He's not allowed to kiss his face everywhere in basic appreciation of Louis’ beauty. 

“Morning,” Louis says. He rolls onto his back and proceeds to stretch his whole body, reaching his arms up toward the headboard and pointing his toes downward. He keeps stretching, anticipating the sound of his back to crack, but what they hear instead is a soft fart that comes from Louis. 

The pair look at each other and pause, then burst out into laughter. They keep laughing until their sides hurt and they're only capable of tiny soft giggles. If this was a perfect world, Harry would take this moment to curl around Louis and kiss him greedily until they are even more breathless. 

However, their outburst of laughter caught Gemma’s attention and she's back at Harry's door knocking and yelling out, “I don't know what you two are doing in there and I don't wanna know! Put some clothes on, breakfast is almost ready.” 

They don't bother changing out of their pajamas, so after brushing their teeth and taking turns using the toilet, they head downstairs for breakfast.

Harry hopes that Louis is not feeling overwhelmed. He has no clue what’s planned for today, but he knows for sure he definitely wants to talk to Louis about his family and get the whole story for why he made the Craigslist post. Harry just wants Louis to be comfortable and happy this holiday week. Harry’s very thankful for Louis’ presence.

“Good morning, sleepy heads!” Anne cheers as they sit down around the table. Plates stacked with pancakes appear in front of them the instant they sit down. “Eat up, kiddos.”

“Wha time’s it?” Louis yawns, rubbing his eyes with tiny balled up fists. 

Anne lets out a good-natured laugh. “It’s nine o’clock. Nice and bright and early,” she chirps.

Louis groans loudly and turns to Harry and stuffs his face into his neck. “Whhhhyyy,” he cried out.

Harry is completely endeared by Louis’ actions. He feels a large smile overtaking his face as he gazes down at the very sleepy and grumpy Louis that is currently using his shoulder as a pillow. He doesn’t care if his affection for this boy is written all over his face for his whole family to see.

“You’re so cute, babe,” Harry giggles, kissing the top of Louis’ head. Harry feels Louis tense and he panics, remembering that he and Louis aren’t an actual couple and Louis might not be okay with these public displays of affection. 

He starts internally scolding himself for such a reckless action when he feels Louis place tiny kisses on his shoulder and neck. They’re out of sight from his family members, just a special little way for Louis to tell Harry to calm down and stop overthinking everything. 

Harry melts at the attention. 

He finally removes his gaze from Louis and takes in the rest of the table. Robin and Pop are reading the paper, totally uninterested in the fake couple and their actions, and Gemma is smirking, but avoiding Harry’s wandering gaze by making light chat with Sam. Harry’s eyes slip over to his nan who is smiling softly at him. Their eyes lock and he can see her eyes twinkle with emotion. He blushes and smiles at her before turning his gaze to his plate.

“Lou, you should start eating,” Harry whispers, shaking his shoulder to rouse the boy. 

“Mmhmpnf,” he mumbles, finally pulling away from Harry. Before he turns to his food though, he lifts his head in Harry’s direction, puckering his lips, silently asking for a kiss. 

Louis doesn’t see the little flick of surprise that momentarily flashes across Harry’s face because his are closed. Harry leans in with no hesitation, though, placing a small peck on the boy’s lips. 

Louis hums, pleased, finally opening his eyes, searching Harry’s face. He chases Harry’s lips for one more quick peck and finally turns to his pancakes and digs in. 

Harry’s face warms up under the attention, especially since he can still feel Nan staring at him along with Anne. 

Louis’ actions only cause Harry to further his pining and wistfully dream of this situation to be real.

-

After Louis finally finishes his breakfast and fully wakes up, Gemma claps her hands together and abruptly stands up. The loud noise startles Louis, but it’s effective as his attention is now on her.

“Thank you for breakfast, Mom,” Gemma announces. “Now Louis go get dressed. You and I are going out together.”

Louis is very confused. Louis is going shopping with Gemma. Since when? 

He turns to Harry for some help but Harry squeaks out, “What?!” Louis guess they’re both equally confused about this.

“Yep Harry. You can’t stop me. You and mom are going to start planning Thanksgiving dinner while Louis and I have some bonding time.”

Harry groans. “Why does everyone make plans without including me in the, you know, actual planning portion?” 

Gemma’s only answer for Harry is a half-hearted shrug. “Come on, Lou. Go get ready. We leave in twenty.” Gemma exits the room, leaving a shocked Louis and Harry fishmouthing at the rest of the table. 

“Don’t look at me,” Sam shrugs. Everyone else echoes Sam’s sentiment, causing Harry to drop his head to the table muttering a small, simple “I hate her.” 

-

Louis was a little bitter that Harry gets to stay in his pajamas and spend the whole day in the warm house. Harry paraded around his bedroom celebrating while Louis was getting dressed after his shower until Anne knocked on the door and told Harry that in a few hours they were going to stop by the grocery store. Harry’s mood instantly fell and he sat on his bed pouting while Louis laughed at him for his misfortune. 

Now Louis knows that Harry is the one laughing because Louis is stiffly sitting in the front seat of Gemma’s car as she drives them to the mall. Louis doesn’t know what to say her and he is feeling ridiculously uncomfortable and uptight. 

Christmas songs are playing through the radio and Gemma is happily humming along but Louis still feels on edge.

“So Louis,” Gemma says randomly, causing Louis to jump and squeal. Gemma breaks out into laughter. 

“Oh my god,” she laughs. “I knew you were tense but gosh! Let loose.”

Louis groans. “I’m sorry. This is just really weird and I haven’t done this in a while. It’s just a lot weird right now.”

“Want to talk about it?” Gemma probes.

“No, not really,” Louis mumbles.

A few more minutes of silence pass before Gemma thoughtfully says, “You’re not really dating Harry, are you?”

If Louis were drinking anything, he’d spit it out in pure shock. He settles for choking on his own spit, coughing wide-eyed and staring helplessly at Gemma. He tries to ask any variation of how she knows or if he was that bad at acting, but all that comes out is a pathetic whine.

“Don’t get me wrong, you two are very,  _ very  _ convincing. No one else noticed.”

Louis swallows hard, words still stuck in his throat. 

“I’m the only one,” Gemma continues, “I promise. Nan thinks you two are destined for some fairytale romance and Mom’s just pleased that Harry looks happy. You know that, right Louis? Harry  _ is _ happy around you.” 

Louis nods.

“But I’ve seen him around boys before and there’s something holding him back. He’s a giant softy, a true sap, the most romantic man I know. So my question is what  _ is _ going on between you two?”

He opens his mouth, but Gemma steamrolls right through him.

“Like, are you two friends with benefits and you wanted to try out this boyfriend thing but he doesn’t feel the same? Are you one of his many NYU friends he doesn’t talk about? I’m just confused, Louis. Help me out, please? I’ve seen Harry Styles get hurt way too many times and I’m tired of being angry at and cautious of all the guys he tries to be with. It’s exhausting.” 

During Gemma’s rant, she pulled into a parking spot at the mall and they’ve been sitting in the parked car for the last few minutes. Louis unbuckles his seatbelt and turns to Gemma, giving her his full attention.

“So Harry and I aren’t actually dating. It’s a long pathetic story on my part, but, as you know, I wasn’t able to make it home for Thanksgiving and my roommates are both spending the holiday with their family so I would have been in our apartment all alone on one of my favorite holidays.” He takes a deep breath, clearing his thoughts.

“It kinda sucks, you know, being alone with your own destructive thoughts. Am I good enough - will I ever be good enough? Does anyone actually want me around? Those fucked up thoughts came from my last boyfriend, which was a while ago, but it still hurts.”

“Oh Louis…”

“My friends suggested that I make one of those casual encounter listings on Craigslist, offering to be like some platonic Thanksgiving dinner date so I wouldn’t be alone. That’s how Harry found me. He emailed me saying he lied to his mom saying he had a boyfriend when in actuality, he has, you know, no boyfriend. So,” Louis shrugs. 

Gemma laughs. “That’s such a Harry thing to do.” 

Louis laughs along too, although his heart isn’t in it. “Yeah, so I’m a fraud. We’ve known each other for… maybe three days now? We met on Monday.”

Gemma is surprised at this, though. “Seriously?! I would have never have guessed. Holy shit. You guys are acting like you’ve been best friends for years.”

“I don’t know. We really just clicked together when we met, I guess,” he shrugs.

Gemma smirks at Louis. “You’re totally gone for him.”

Louis flounders. “What? I-I-I don’t. What do you mean?” he blushes.

“Oh Louis. You may be Harry’s fake boyfriend but you totally want it all.”

He can’t look Gemma in the eye anymore. So far on this trip to the mall he’s spilled his heart to Gemma, exposed his and Harry’s secret, and has demonstrated just how gone he is for the curly haired kid. This is  _ so _ not how he saw this day going. 

“Yeah,” he admits in a small voice. He brings his feet up on the seat, pulling his knees to his chest. He wraps his arms around his shins and rests his forehead against the tops of his knees.

“I’m sorry, Gemma.”

Gemma rests her hand on the back of Louis’ neck comfortingly. “What are you sorry for, Lou?”

“I don’t know. It’s just… Harry wanted me to  _ pretend _ to be his boyfriend and I want so much more. Gemma,” Louis funnels so much emotion into the one word. “I’ve known him for three days now and I already know how special he is and I’m nowhere near good enough for him.”

Louis still isn’t looking at her, but he can feel her softening at her words. “Maybe you should talk to him, Lou.”

Louis turns to look at her. “Maybe.” He clears his throat. “C’mon on, let’s go get some shopping done.”

He turns and opens the door, quickly removing himself from the confines of the car and ending the conversation.

While him and Gemma shop, their conversations are much more relaxed and casual. They joke back and forth and Gemma even tells funny embarrassing stories from her and Harry’s childhood. 

However, the whole time Louis can’t escape his thoughts from the conversation they had in the car. It follows him around like a rain cloud. He’s painfully infatuated and endeared by Harry and every time Harry does something even the tiniest bit cute, Louis wants to kiss him senseless. 

Louis will just have to talk to Harry and the thought alones kills him.

-

Harry has to talk to Louis when he gets back. 

Harry literally spent the whole day writing grocery lists with his mom and going food shopping, but the only thing on his mind was Louis. He thought about how soft Louis was this morning and how easy it felt giving him those small kisses. But he also thought about how they meant nothing. Louis was just trying to help convince Harry’s family that they were together and he was doing a good job at it. But Harry desperately wants the real thing and he thinks it’s only fair to both of them to sit down and talk about it. Communication is key in a relationship, right?

-

Gemma, Sam, Robin, and Anne are chatting in the dining room while dinner is cooking. Harry and Louis both had a long tiring day so they’re cuddled together on the couch taking it easy. 

“How was your day with Gemma, Louis?” Pop asks from the recliner where he’s currently working on the crossword puzzle from the morning paper.

“Tiring. Very emotionally draining, actually,” Louis laughs. 

“Did she interrogate you like an annoying older sister?” Nan questions from where she’s sitting on the loveseat, knitting. 

“I hope not,” Harry whines. “She can be so annoying and intrusive. Sorry Lou,” he pouts. 

Louis wiggles closer to Harry. They’re sitting on the largest couch in the room yet there is not one inch of space between them. Harry loves the feeling of Louis this close and so does his dick, but that’s something he’d rather not explore at this time and place. 

“She was fine, babe,” Louis insists. “Calm down. We chatted a little bit, but most of the time she told me embarrassing Harry stories.” 

Nan and Pop laugh at that while Harry deepens his pout. “‘S not fair.”

Soon enough everyone is called to the dining room for dinner. The Thanksgiving day excitement is palpable in the room. Anne and Nan talk about everything that needs to be prepped for tomorrow while Gemma, Pop, and Sam talk about some random thing Harry doesn’t care enough to listen to. What is interesting, though, is that Louis and Robin are deep in conversation on Harry’s left side. 

“Yeah, Harry’s step-sister Amy, her husband, and son are going to be joining us for the holiday tomorrow,” Robin informs Louis.

“Aw,” Louis gushes. “Harry has a nephew? That’s adorable.”

Robin chuckles. “His name is Archie. He’s great and he absolutely adores our Harry over there.”

Louis beams. “I bet. It’s hard not to.”

Harry swears he’s not eavesdropping (he is) and the blush that colors his cheeks definitely is not because of that comments (it is). 

Harry reminds himself to talk to Louis sometime tomorrow after dinner about how he truly feels. He would do it tonight, but he doesn’t want to ruin the perfect holiday atmosphere they have created. Harry feels warm, surrounded by his family and Louis.

-

Harry’s mad at Gemma for waking him up early, although he has to admit the sunrise was beautiful. It really put everything into perspective. He’s having these problems that he likes to think are the biggest, most complicated issues he’s ever faced, but seeing the sunrise this morning reminded him it’s not really that deep. He can easily solve his problems by just talking to Louis and Gemma helped him come to this conclusion.

When she pulled Harry out of bed this morning, quiet enough not to wake Louis up, she found the fake boyfriends wrapped up in each other's arms. When they made it to the roof, Harry insisted that they hadn’t fallen asleep that way until he realized that Gemma wouldn’t see a reason for them not to cuddle.

Gemma quickly admitted that she knew they weren’t a real couple just to save Harry the trouble of explaining himself. She briefed Harry on what Louis told her, concerning their relationship. 

“H, I see the way you look at him. I know you have this huge crush on him. Are you going to act on it?” she asks. They’re currently the only two awake, sipping coffee at the kitchen table.

“I was planning on talking to him after dinner, actually.”

“You know Mom is going to try to convince you guys to stay the weekend?”

Harry groans. “Really?”

“Yep. So I suggest you figure that out sooner rather than later.”

He sighs. “Would it be cheesy trying to spend all of today wooing Louis?”

Gemma cackles. “I think it’d be hilarious. Wear your best looking outfit, drop cheesy Thanksgiving themed pickup lines, cuddle and spoil him all day. It’ll be great. No one would notice anything has changed.”

Harry chuckles in response. “Except Louis. He’ll be so confused.”

“So confused!” Gemma laughs. “It’ll be hilarious seeing him trying to disguise his confused face from the rest of the family, but I bet it’ll just turn into fond glances once he realizes you’re not gonna stop.”

Harry and Gemma finish their conversation and Harry sneaks back into his room to grab his special outfit for Thanksgiving. He disregards the one he set out the night before, reaching for something more promising. He sneaks off to the shower but not without one last lingering glance at the sleeping beauty in his bed. 

-

Louis rolls over and reaches out for Harry. He’s still soft with sleep and just the tiniest bit groggy, but the lack of Harry in the bed is concerning enough to wake Louis up fully. 

He rubs the sleep out of his eyes and feels the sheets next to him, which he finds are cold. Confused, he picks up his phone and turns it on. 

Instantly, a bunch of text messages pour in from friends and family, people like his mom, Lottie, Zayn, and even Roy, all wishing Louis a Happy Thanksgiving, noting that they’re thankful that he is in their lives.

Louis automatically replies to each text, feeling warm and fuzzy. It’s always nice to wake up to a bunch of messages from people he loves sharing their love with him. 

He finally takes a look at the time and panics. It’s 1:12pm. Who the fuck let Louis sleep  _ that _ long? And now that he comes to think of it, he can smell the delicious aroma of the cooking turkey and hear the faint sounds of a football game filtering up through the floorboards. 

He rolls out of bed, gathers his clothes he packed specifically for the holiday, and makes his way to the shower. 

After his shower, Louis pulls on a pair of his favorite black skinny jeans and a black button up. He loves both items he chose because they hug his figure and show off his curves. He definitely hopes it blows Harry away. He styles his hair into a simply fluffy fringe and returns to Harry’s room to throw on dark navy blue, almost black sneakers. The perfectly white shoelaces stand out against his all black ensemble. 

Finally Louis makes his way downstairs. He says hello to Nan and Pop who are in the living room watching whatever football game is currently being played. Nan is knitting, but Pop seems to be invested in the game, arguing with the ref from the couch on some bad play or call or whatever. Louis is not sure. He never really understood football. Not wanting to stick around and listen to Pop fight the television, Louis embarks on a search to find Harry, wanting to yell at him for not waking him up at a reasonable time. 

He finds Anne in the kitchen, working on some food for tonight’s meal. 

“Good afternoon, Louis,” she says when he enters the kitchen. “Oh my! What a handsome young man you are. You look very nice. Oh, baby, you and Harry sure do make a good looking pair.”

Louis blushes at Anne’s shower of compliments. “Thank you. You look nice as well. Actually, have you seen Harry? He never woke me up and I want to yell at him.”

Anne chuckles. “We thought you should get some rest this morning. Harry’s out in the backyard with Robin, Amy, and Archie. Gemma, Sam, and Amy’s husband are running some errands.”

Louis says his thanks and goes to join Harry in the backyard. 

When Louis steps foot on the lawn, it feels like time stops. Louis and Harry lock eyes at the same and they’re instantly blown away by each other. Louis knows Harry is check him out. Louis  _ definitely _ knows Harry is checking out his thighs and ass. His gaze sears Louis’ skin and his skin tingles, but none of that matters to Louis. 

Louis doesn’t feel like there’s enough oxygen in the backyard to fill his lungs after how breathless he feels looking at Harry. Louis’ eyes try to take in every single little detail of Harry’s impeccable outfit, from the bottom of his black heeled ankle boots to the top of his beautifully styled curly hair. 

Harry’s wearing sinfully tight skinny jeans. They’re probably women’s jeans.  _ Fuck _ . Louis might be getting hard looking at Harry’s legs. 

He quickly flicks his eyes up to Harry’s torso, taking in the sight of the beautiful pink silk shirt he’s wearing. The shirt is unbuttoned more than a normal person should ever unbutton their shirt, but Louis is not complaining because it perfectly shows off Harry’s beautiful pale skin and stunning black tattoos. The shirt has bird designs on each breast and the short sleeves’ cuffs are slightly rolled up just a little bit. 

Louis is honestly surprised he doesn’t pass out then and there.

After they check each other out their eyes meet again, but this time, they both have a crazed look in their eyes - something more primal, something more than just casual appreciation for each other’s appearance. 

They break the eye contact fast though, faces heating up and turning bright red. 

Louis composes himself and makes his way toward Harry and who he assumes to be Archie. Louis is just about to say hello when Harry beats him to it.

“I only have pies for you, Lou,” he says. His eyes are still wide and it seems that he’s still a little frazzled. 

Louis laughs at Harry’s cute use of a Thanksgiving pun. He rolls with it and leans in to kiss Harry on the cheek. “Thanks babe.” He crouches down to Archie’s eye-level and smiles at him. “Who might you be, little man?”

“‘M Archie! Are you Uncle Harry’s girlfriend?”

Louis hears Amy, Robin, and Harry all laugh. He purses his lips.

“Don’t you think your Uncle Harry’s more fit to be  _ my _ girlfriend?” Louis says conspiratorially. 

Archie agrees with Louis right away, causing Amy and Robin to laugh even harder and for Harry to shout an affronted “Heeeey!!” 

Louis high-fives Archie. “My name is Louis and I’m actually your Uncle Harry’s boyfriend. I’m the cooler one in the relationship,” he winks. 

Archie giggles. “Can you play soccer with me and Uncle Harry, Louis?”

“Of course, Archie! I’m great at soccer. You and me versus Uncle Harry?” Archie nods. “Awesome, let’s go!”

-

Harry hates Louis Tomlinson. He has decided he should compile a list of the reasons why. First, he decides to come into the backyard looking absolutely magnificent in all black. Second, he decided to kiss Harry on the cheek  _ and _ call him babe all within the same time frame. Third, he’s absolutely adorable when he’s talking to Archie and it’s just not fair. 

If Harry was not able to compose himself right away after looking at Louis in his sinful outfit, he undoubtedly is not able to compose himself after seeing Louis interact with Archie. Harry’s thankful there are no more small children or other relatives joining them for Thanksgiving today because if they did, Harry wouldn’t be able to survive seeing Louis interact with the children. 

As Louis suggested, Archie and Louis team up against Harry in soccer. Harry usually lets Archie win by default when they play, but Louis and Archie out team him spectacularly and by the end of the match, he’s slightly sweaty and breathing heavy, lying starfished on the grass. 

Robin, Amy, and Archie make their way inside so they can help Gemma, Sam, and Amy’s husband with their shopping bags and to help Anne set the table and prep more food. 

Harry’s content with just lying on the lawn, trying to catch his breath, but his relaxing his interrupted when he feels something fall onto his stomach. He groans in pain and flicks his eyes open to see what - or who - landed on top of him. 

When he opens his eyes, he sees Louis smiling down at him. He’s decided to straddle Harry’s waist and Harry’s heartbeat starts picking its speed right back up again. He sends a thousands prayers to any god out there, praying that his dick won’t get hard with Louis on top of him in this position. 

“I won,” Louis whispers. All Harry can do is nod in response. 

Louis presses his pointer finger into Harry’s sternum, the pressure causing a little pain for Harry. Harry hates that his dick likes the pain. He tries to hold in a moan. 

“You’re crap at soccer,” Louis says, raising his eyebrow, picking up on how much Harry is affected by his actions. 

Harry nods. 

“Oh you’re too easy, Styles,” Louis smirks. He grinds his ass down onto Harry’s semi hard dick and then removes himself from Harry’s waist. He walks towards the house, not turning around to look at Harry until he reaches the doorway. 

“You coming or not, Styles?” he yells out before entering the house. Harry wishes he could be coming right now, thank you very much. 

Harry waits a few more minutes, waiting for his dick to calm itself before he reenters the house filled with his  _ family _ . Gosh, he needs to pull himself together. 

-

Louis doesn’t know what overcame him. One minute he was hesitant to even look at Harry and he just fucking straddled the man in the middle of his childhood backyard. He has to admit it was pretty hot, though. It was also a good learning experience, seeing that Harry is as easily affected by Louis as Louis is by Harry. 

Louis washes his hands at the kitchen sink and decides to keep Archie occupied in the living room while all the adults work on preparing the dinner table. Gemma and Sam join them a few minutes later. They watching some news coverage of the Thanksgiving Day Parade, Archie getting excited when Santa Claus is featured as the finale of the parade floats. 

Harry joins them when they decide to put on cartoons. He sits on Archie’s right, completing a Louis-Archie-Harry sandwich on the couch. When Amy comes to check on her son, she coos at the sight and takes a million photos on her phone, calling Anne in to do the same. Louis and Harry blush and feign embarrassment as the mothers conduct a mini photoshoot, but there is no other place the fake couple would like to be right now. 

-

Louis and Harry volunteer to carry the food from the kitchen to the dining room. They’re casually talking while doing so until Harry interrupts a story Louis is telling about something stupid Zayn and Liam did two weeks ago.

Harry is passing the gravy boat to Louis when he wiggles his eyebrows and says, “Hey baby, it's all gravy.”

Louis rolls his eyes and continues the story until Harry has the nerve to do it again. 

“Baby, you're saucy,” he giggles, passing the cranberry sauce to Louis. This one causes Louis to giggle as well and Harry celebrates his victory, but Louis proceeds to ignore him to continue his story. 

Everything is almost on the table and Louis has finished his story when Harry enters the dining room holding a platter of turkey. He places it in the center of the table and looks up at Louis from under his eyelashes.

With his voice dripping with sex appeal, Harry says in a low voice, “Talk turkey to me, Lou.” He winks and then walks away, leaving Louis alone in the dining room.

And now Louis understands. Harry’s been using increasingly cheesy Thanksgiving themed pick up lines. Oh god. Louis is so into this nerd. He wants to kiss him senseless. He starts formulating a quick plan in his head and follows Harry into the kitchen. 

A few others are also in the kitchen, but that’s Louis’ goal. He walks up to Harry, face to face, chests almost touching. Harry’s looking at Louis with a confused expression. 

Louis wraps his arms around Harry’s neck and says, just the tiniest bit loud enough for the others to hear, “Good job setting the table babe.” He then leans in and give Harry a very quick, but very passionate kiss to the lips. He swipes his tongue against Harry’s plush lips, but Harry is too slow to open them for Louis before he pulls away.

Louis gives Harry’s ass a few quick taps and then disappears into the living room. If Harry is left a little breathless, a little confused, and a little turned on, then he executed his plan perfectly. Two can play at that game, Styles. 

-

Conversation throughout dinner was simple and very family style. It’s quite a change from what Louis is used to with his many, many siblings. He’s happy, though and it’s a very nice change for once. It’s also very nice to be sitting next to Harry the whole time. Their legs touched throughout the whole meal and Louis loved the heat it caused in his gut. Or maybe that was thanks to the constant stream of compliments Louis and Harry received on how good of a couple they are. 

When everyone is finished dinner, Harry and Gemma run into the kitchen to retrieve coffee, ice cream, and slices of pie for everyone. 

When Harry returns to his seat next to Louis, he pulls out a can of whip cream and winks at Louis. “Now watch me whip…” 

Louis giggles at Harry who decided to keep his bad pickup line trend. 

Louis is happily munching on his pumpkin pie when Anne grabs his and Harry’s attention.

“Boys, will you please stay the rest of the weekend? The past few days have been really fun and you should make the most of your Thanksgiving break and stick around until Sunday.”

Harry and Louis turn and look at each other. 

“Um, can we let you know later?” Harry says as Louis talks over him, saying, “Of course, that’d be amazing.”

They freeze and then break out into giggles. Louis speaks up and agrees with Harry, agreeing on telling Anne their decision later.

“That’s fine,” Anne smiles. “I just don’t want Harry driving home tonight after all the wine he had.”

Louis blushes, knowing she’s specifically speaking about him 

As dinner winds down and everyone starts finding their way home, Louis finds himself completely at ease, happiness spreading through his body.

He says goodbye to Archie and his parents, promising to see him again sometime soon. He hopes that he’ll be able to hold that promise. 

Next to say goodbye are Nan and Pop and Louis lets them know how much he appreciates them and their acceptance and love. Nan gives him a kiss on the cheek and Pop offers a sturdy handshake and hug. Louis genuinely admire Harry’s grandparents and he’s happy that Gemma and Harry have such wonderful elders. 

Surprisingly Gemma and Sam are leaving Thanksgiving night as well since they’re spending the weekend with Sam’s parents. Before they leave though, Gemma pulls Louis to the side.

“It was nice meeting you, Gems,” Louis starts.

“Oh hush, Tomlinson,” she snaps. “You’ll be seeing a lot of me if it was up to you.”

Louis blushes. “Yeah…” he agrees. 

Gemma laughs. “Take care of him and tell him the truth please? Make it work for me at least. You guys are so good together. It’s kinda sickening.” 

Louis pulls Gemma into a tight hug. “You’re great. Thank you for everything. Best of luck to you and Sam.”

Gemma kisses Louis’ cheek. “Let me know how it goes. I put my number in your phone.” Louis laughs out loud at this. He then shakes Sam’s hand and then the couple starts heading out. 

Anne and Robin tell Harry and Louis that they’ll take care of clean up and that they can head to bed. Even though they’re not tired, they don’t fight it. 

-

The room is quiet and the tension is tangible as they get ready for bed.

“You looked really good today, Lou,” Harry whispers.

Louis blushes. “Thanks Haz. You did too. The pink was very nice, I liked your shirt a lot.” 

Harry positively preens at the compliment, biting his lower lip. 

They both slip under the covers of Harry’s bed, getting comfortable for the night.

“Hey Lou,” Harry whispers. 

“Hey H,” Louis whispers back. “Why are we whispering?”

Harry giggles. “I dunno, felt right.” He clears his throat. “There’s actually something I want to talk to you about.”

Louis focuses all of his attention on Harry and Harry thinks he might combust. The way Louis looks at him is always so intense, it makes him squirm. In a good way. 

He bites his bottom lip, trying to organize his thoughts. Next thing he knows, Louis is reaching forward and pulling Harry’s lip out from under his teeth.

They stare at each other, eyes wide and pupils blown in the low light. 

Louis lunges forward and kisses Harry. 

When their lips meet, it feels real, it feels like it’s  _ supposed _ to be what they’re doing with their mouths. The kiss is unlike the staged kisses they’ve been sharing in front of Harry’s family for the past few days. This kiss is messy, yet passionate. Lips are parted and tongues are meeting. Their teeth only clash a few times and it’s everything Harry’s always wanted and it leaves him absolutely breathless. 

Louis pulls apart, breathing heavy. “I’ve wanted to do that since the day I first saw you. Holy shit.”

Harry nods, chest heaving. 

Louis dives back in, positioning his body over top of Harry’s, straddling him like he did earlier in the backyard. Louis pulls away again, starting to nip his teeth down the column of Harry’s throat. However, he pulls his away again, bring his forehead up to rest against Harry’s.

Harry moans, wanting Louis to continue, but all the older boy does is laugh. “What did you want to talk to me about, love?”

Harry cries out at the use of the petname. 

“Sh, it’s okay, H. Just tell me,” Louis says, small smile on his lips.

“Can I take you out on a date tomorrow?” Harry asks earnestly. He feels shy in this moment, a beautiful boy on top of him with the feeling of what’s to come suffocating him. He really wants Louis to be his and he wants to be Louis’. This was so not the conversation he was envisioning, but hey, he’s not complaining. 

Louis grinds his hips down on Harry’s groin, smiling devilishly. “Of course you can, sunshine. I was hoping you’d say that.” His eyes roam over Harry’s face and his neck. “You’re so beautiful, baby. Can I take your shirt off?”

Harry nods frantically but Louis tsks at him. “Words please, baby.”

“Yes,” Harry moans, throwing his head back on the pillow.

Louis chuckles, removing Harry’s tshirt. He runs his hands up and down Harry’s bare chest, feeling each twitch of muscle as he goes. He buries his hands in Harry’s hair, massaging and lightly scratching at his scalp. 

Harry’s body feels like it’s on fire. He lays there on his bed, completely pliant as Louis covers his chest and neck in tiny kisses and bruises. Harry hums in satisfaction, loving the feeling of being taken care of by Louis.

When Louis bites down particularly hard on his left nipple, Harry’s hips shoot up, his dick searching out some type of friction. 

“Soon, baby,” Louis promising. He sits up, removing his own shirt and pajama pants, leaving him in only his boxers.

Harry moans loudly. “You’re gorgeous, Louis.” Harry’s eyes flit around Louis’ body, trying to take in sight before him. He licks his lips, eyes stuck to Louis’ chest tattoo. “Can I put my mouth around you please? Can you get me naked please and then can I suck you? Please, Louis, please,” he whines.

Louis shushes him with a kiss to the lips, their tongues intertwining. “Of course, sweetheart. One thing at a time.” 

Louis slowly pulls the rest of Harry’s clothes off, dropping kisses to his skin whenever possible. Louis’ hands wander up and down Harry’s thighs, lightly tugging at the light dusting of hair that covers them. Harry’s dick twitches in interest and Harry covers his face, embarrassed. Harry prayers that Louis didn’t notice.

Louis notices, though. He coos at Harry, “Baby it’s okay. You like the hair being pulled? The sensations it causes?”

“Yeah,” Harry whimpers.

“That’s okay, darling. You don’t have to be ashamed. Here, baby, do you wanna suck me off now?” 

Harry nods as Louis removes his boxers. They’re both now completely bare for each other. Harry sighs at the feeling of Louis’ skin on his. The slight caresses and soft touches make Harry keen. He swears he can get lost in this moment forever. 

“How do you want to do it, H?” Louis asks, unsure, but wanting to make sure Harry receives everything he wants. 

“Can I stay where I am? Like, lying down? So maybe… I don’t know. So you have the possibility to fuck my face,” Harry says shyly.

Louis groans. “The things that come out of your mouth, I swear. I’d love that, baby. Whatever you want.” 

Louis positions himself above Harry, letting Harry create his own rhythm and speed. Harry is so happy and eager that he swallows Louis down too fast at first. Louis checks if he’s okay and then allows Harry to continue.

Harry loves the feeling of Louis’ dick in his mouth. He swipes the underside and pets at the tip with his tongue. He closes his eyes, enjoying everything Louis is giving him. He bobs his head up and down, Louis moaning above him. Soon Harry’s neck hurts from the activity and he opens his eyes and gives Louis the signal that he can now take over.

“Kick or hit me if you want me to stop or if I hurt you,” Louis warns. Harry tells Louis he understands. Louis removes himself from Harry’s mouth to give the boy under him a quick kiss. Harry takes a deep, preparing himself when Louis pulls away, and the next second he feels Louis sliding down his throat.

Harry closes his eyes, savoring the tingles that every slide in and out causes. Above Harry, Louis is singing his praises in the form of not only words but also moans. Harry can’t understand what he’s exactly saying, but it’s an amazing experience. 

Harry’s loving it so much that he doesn’t notice that he reached his orgasm until an intense wave of pleasure washes over him. Louis slides farther down Harry’s throat when he realizes Harry came and he releases a moan that's louder than the rest. He momentarily speeds up his thrusts and then comes down Harry’s throat. Louis praises Harry, telling him how perfect he was as they clean each other up.

For the first time that week they purposefully fall asleep tangled up in eachothers arms and Harry couldn’t be any happier to be held and cared for by Louis Tomlinson. 

-

Louis wakes up before Harry and he’s achey in all the best ways possible. Louis would never have guessed in a million years that last night would have turned out the way it did. Louis flicks through his memories of the night before and it was absolutely amazing. Harry was super responsive and Louis loved every second of it. The way he held Harry, the way he showered the younger boy in kisses, it was everything he’s been dreaming of.

Harry deserves to be happy and as Louis turns over in the bed to look at Harry’s face, he can see a hint of a smile on the sleeping boy’s peaceful face. 

They’re going to have to talk about this, about what they want. Louis is okay with that though. He wants a lot with Harry, he’s realized and he’ll go through a billion awkward conversations where they work out their feelings if it means he can kiss Harry and spoil the fuck out of him.

Louis is lying there, staring at Harry’s face, when he realizes how ridiculous his inner monologue sounds right now. When did he become this sappy? Before Harry came along, Louis was still bitter about Erik and he knew for sure no one would ever love him again. Now he’s imaging that Harry loving him is a possibility. 

What kind of self-improvement? Louis is proud of himself. 

He peeks at his phone to gauge what time it is and when he sees the clock says noon, he sighs, realizing that he should wake Harry up. 

Louis starts delivering soft kiss all over Harry’s face, whispering a softly between each one, “Wake up, sunshine.” 

Harry scrunches his nose and squeezes his eyes shut. Louis presses a soft kiss to Harry’s lips, which causes Harry to finally open his eyes.

“Oh,” he breathes out. “I thought it was all just a dream. I didn’t want to wake up,” Harry admits softly, his eyes searching Louis’ face. 

Louis smiles softly at Harry. “Last night did actually happen, babe. It was great. You’re great.”

Harry blushes. “We need to talk about this.”

Louis nods and tells Harry what time it is after a few more kisses to his plush pink lips.

“We should go downstairs. My parents probably know we fucked. Oh god,” Harry groans. “My parents definitely know we fucked.”

Giggles escape Louis’ mouth as he gazes down fondly at the boy next to him. 

“Come on, let’s put some clothes on, baby.”

Harry looks even more beautiful in full daylight. His skin is a beautiful, not sickly, pale. His long hair is draping over his shoulder where the evidence of last night’s activities lie all over his collarbones and around his pecs. Louis unabashedly stares at his handiwork, causing Harry to flush a bright red. 

Louis’ eyes jump from tattoo to tattoo, lingering on the laurels that frame his hips. The tattoo guides his eyes down to Harry’s groin and Louis smirks playfully, which causes Harry to blush even more than he already is. He quickly throws on last night’s boxers.

“You’re beautiful, Harry Styles. God,” Louis groans, “the things you do to me, baby. You’re stunning.”

“Lou, stop it,” Harry giggles. “Get dressed before my parents get more suspicious.”

When they’re finally clothed, the pair stumbles down the stairs hand-in-hand, giggling like a bunch of children. Harry nearly trips but Louis keeps him from stumbling to his death. He places kisses to the back of Harry's hand, still locked around his own. 

“C’mon Bambi. Control yourself,” Louis giggles. 

Anne and Robin are quiet as they enter the kitchen, but Louis can feel they're itching to ask some questions. Louis and Harry blissfully ignore them as they start gathering ingredients for grilled cheese sandwiches. They work together in harmony in the kitchen. The only sound between the four people is Harry's adorable humming. 

When Louis and Harry finish their sandwiches, they wave bye to Anne and Robin and shuffle into the living room to watch whatever cartoons can be found on on a Friday morning. They cuddle up close on the couch, this time just because the want to, not because they’re trying to prove something to Harry’s family. 

Louis loves the peaceful feeling that has settled over him and Harry. It’s pretty obvious that the feelings Louis has been harboring towards Harry are mutual, but he’s still hoping they get to talk about it further. Life would be pretty nice with Harry by his side. Louis would prefer it to be as his boyfriend, but if Harry wants to just be friends, then Louis will take it. 

But Louis is also a little bit afraid. Life when he was dating Erik was blissful and perfect. There were no signs of dishonesty between them and Louis trusted Erik with his whole being. Louis thought they were a strong couple, that’s why it hurt so much when Erik broke free of Louis in a text. It fucking hurt a lot. Louis doesn’t know if he’s strong enough to go through an experience like that again. 

Harry’s not Erik though. Harry is special and Louis thinks Harry has potential to make Louis feel special again. Like how he used to feel. Louis desperately wants to be happy again and he thinks Harry can help him on that journey. 

“Hey Lou,” Harry says, nudging his nose against Louis’ ear, after they’ve finished eating. 

“Yes baby?”

“Can I still take you out on a date? A real date so maybe we can be real dating.”

Louis turns his head to look up at Harry. “I would love that, babe. But not today, please? I just wanna stay inside cuddling you and watching crap television.”

Harry smiles wide. “Of course. I’ll plan an amazing day for you tomorrow. It’ll be great. Now let’s put on a movie.”

“Something Christmasy?” Louis asks hopeful.

“Elf, Love Actually, or Home Alone?”

Louis chooses Love Actually without hesitation, although he loves the other two movies. Harry’s beyond thrilled with Louis’ choice, which leads to them making out on the couch until Robin and Anne are standing the doorway, clearing their throats. Harry blushes bright red and removes himself from Louis’ side to put the disk into the player. 

Anne and Robin sit down together on the loveseat to join the boys in watching the movie, but not before Anne carries in a mug full of steaming peppermint hot chocolate for everyone.

The four of them spend all day together in the living room, having a mini Christmas movie marathon and Louis loves every single second of it. The atmosphere of the house is warm and welcoming. Louis loves Anne and Robin’s presence, but he’s wishing for a little bit of alone time with the boy next to him. He wants to talk to him about their next step and what they are - what they could be. 

Soon enough Robin moves to the kitchen to cook dinner and decides to join him. She sends a wink at Harry and Louis as she exits the room, causing Harry to blush and Louis to laugh. 

“Can we talk?” Louis asks, as he trails his fingers through Harry’s curls. 

“Sure thing, but only if you keep doing that,” Harry purrs, leaning into Louis’ hands.

“So I was, uh, wondering if we could figure out what this is,” he says, pointing between himself and Harry.

“Hmm. I suppose I would like you to my real boyfriend, but I would like to decide on that after our date tomorrow, if you don’t mind.”

Louis kisses the top of Harry’s head. “I would really like to be your real boyfriend.”

Louis can feel Harry shimmying even closer to Louis, if it’s even possible. Harry is basically sitting in his lap, but Louis loves it. 

“Just so ya know, Lou,” Harry yawns, “I’m the little spoon.”

“Kinda figured that out, Haz.”

A comfortable silence settles over the boys, Louis continuing to run his fingers through the younger boy’s hair whose eyes are slowly slipping shut. 

“I’m glad you made that Craigslist post,” Harry whispers.

“I’m glad you answered it.”

-

Harry insists that he and Louis go to bed early since they have a long day ahead of them tomorrow, but honestly he just wanted to take a shower with Louis and Anne and Robin wouldn’t hear them if they were still downstairs in the kitchen.

As soon as they make it upstairs, Harry pulls Louis into the bathroom and pushes him against the closed door, instantly removing Louis’ shirt and attaching his lips to Louis’ collarbones. 

Louis chuckles. “Baby, all you had to do was ask.” The laughs soon turn into moans though, which motivates Harry to remove his own shirt, sweatpants, and boxers in one go. Louis moans at the sight.

Harry momentarily pulls himself away from Louis to turn the shower on, but he quickly reattaches his himself to Louis, continuing to pull his clothes off of him. Harry drops to his knees, pulling Louis’ track pants down as he goes. Louis steps. out of them once they’re around his ankles.

“The things you do to me,” Harry moans, resting his forehead against Louis’ thigh, composing himself.

He pulls away and gazes up at Louis through his eyelashes. They make eye contact and Louis sends a small, private smile down to Harry. The intimacy of the exchange gives Harry goosebumps all over his naked body. He moves forward, mouthing over the clothed hardened length of Louis’ dick. 

Hooking his fingers into the waistband, he starts to slowly pull down Louis’ boxers. Louis moans as his dick becomes free of the fabric.

Harry tilts his head forward until he’s about an inch away from Louis’ dick.

“Baby. Please,” Louis whines.

Harry hums. “I think the water is at the perfect temperature.” He stands up, knees aching from kneeling on the tiles. “We don’t want it to get cold.”

Hips swaying, Harry walks the short distance to the shower and gets it. The hot water feels good running over his body, especially his hard dick, which pulls a moan out of his throat.

He raises his eyebrow at Louis who is still attached to the door. “Going to join me or just watch?” Harry asks, palm sliding down his torso towards his groin. He grasps himself in his right hand, moaning at the feeling. 

Louis  _ finally _ pulls himself away from the door and steps into the shower with Harry. They stand under the spray, kissing. 

Harry swoons at the feeling of Louis’ tongue swiping against his own. Harry tastes the wine he drank with dinner on Louis’ tongue and Harry wishes he could get drunk off this boy’s mouth for the rest of his life. The passionate kisses soon slow down and Louis pulls away asking if he could wash Harry’s hair.

Harry silently hands him a bottle of shampoo, turning his back to Louis. Harry waits anxiously for the relaxing sensation of Louis washing his hair, but it never comes. Confused, Harry looks behind him to see what Louis is doing and he see Louis standing there with his eyes glassy yet completely focused on Harry’s ass.

“Like what you see, Lou,” Harry giggles, which breaks Louis out of his trance. 

Louis moans, “I’m going to fuck your ass so hard one day.”

“Yes, please,” Harry moans in return. “But while we’re here right now, can you please wash my hair?”

Louis chuckles. “You’re unbelievable.”

“Unbelievably amazing. Now get to it.” Harry turns back around, facing forward.

When Louis’ hands start massaging into Harry’s scalp, he melts. Louis works the shampoo for longer than necessary, but Harry doesn’t care, loving the feeling of being taken care of by Louis. Louis continues on to rinse Harry’s hair and adding conditioner. 

Harry is so completely turned on by Louis’ pulling and scratching that he has to wrap his fist around his dick or he’d cry. Harry gently pulls at himself, loving the small, teasing feeling. 

As Louis is washing out the conditioner, he not-so-discreetly rubs his dick across Harry’s ass. The moan Harry releases spurs Louis on, causing him to grind up and down Harry’s crack. 

When Harry figures all the conditioner has been removed, he turns around to face Louis. He mouths at Louis’ neck, sucking a few bruises into his sweet spot under his jaw. Louis moans a broken plea for Louis to do something, which causes Harry to wrap one large hand around both his and Louis’ dick. 

Harry pulls them both off together. They orgasm moments apart from each other, cum painting them bellies and Harry’s fist.

They finish the rest of the shower in silence, the only sound being the occasional smacking of lips when they take a break to quickly make out. They wash each other off with a vanilla scented Christmas themed body wash. Harry chose it because he knew the smell would be amazing on Louis’ skin and he’s proud that he was able to prove it. 

The water is finally shut off after drying off, they gather their dirty discarded clothes and scurry naked through the hallway back into Harry’s bedroom. They giggle the whole time and collapse onto the bed when they finally make it back into the room. They don’t bother putting on clothes, opting for sliding under the covers, kissing and cuddling until they fall asleep in each other’s arms. Harry will remember this moment for the rest of his life.

-

“Where are we going, Harold? It’s too fucking cold out to be walking anywhere. Fuck you,” Louis spits out, words muffled by the chunky scarf wrapped around his mouth.

Harry just laughs. “We’re almost there, Louis. Calm down.” Louis glares at Harry but doesn’t say anything else. This is a really shitty date if Louis is going to freeze to death by the end of it. 

“We’re here!” Harry announces when they reach a bakery a few blocks away from his house. “Did you know that I used to be a baker? I worked her all throughout high school.”

“Very nice, Curly. Is this our date then?”

Harry beams. “Part of it! C’mon, let’s go Lou.” Harry grabs his hand, entering the bakery.

Louis watches on as Harry greets the ladies who are currently working. He introduces them to Louis briefly before pulling Louis into the kitchen in the back. 

“This is my old boss, Barbara. Barbara this is Louis, my, uh,” Harry stumbles.

“I’m his boyfriend. Louis Tomlinson,” he smiles brightly, offering his hand. 

Barbara totally ignores the handshake, going straight for a giant hug. “It’s nice to meet you, Louis. How may I help you today, Harry?”

Harry blushes. “Well we’re kinda on a date right now and I was hoping we could use your kitchen and pantry so Lou and I can bake some cookies together.”

“Aw, that’s so cute,” Barbara coos. “Feel free to help yourself to anything. I’ll stay out of your way. You know your way around, Harry. If you need me, I’ll be up front,” she winks as she makes her way out of the kitchen. 

“Harry,” Louis whines as soon as Barbara’s gone. “I don’t know how to bake!”

“It’s okay. You can sit there and look pretty and taste the dough.”

“Hmm… I think I like that idea,” Louis says, hopping up onto the counter, sitting next to Harry’s workspace. 

Louis watches Harry the whole time. His hair is pulled back into a tight bun and flour is streaked across his cheek. Louis thinks he’s absolutely beautiful. 

The whole time they talk about everything and anything they could possibly think about. Harry feeds Louis little pieces of cookie dough every now and then and when they finally come out the oven, Louis is ready to stuff himself full of the delicious cookies Harry baked, but Harry stops him. Louis whines, but Harry promises they’ll be getting food soon. 

Still, the cookies are so good Louis can’t stop himself from devouring a hand full of them. Louis praises Harry’s baking by shoving him into the tiny employees only bathroom in the kitchen and blowing him until his eyes roll into the back of his head. 

They make themselves decent after that little interlude and pack up the rest of their cookies for later. They say thank you and goodbye to Barbara and her staff and head out to the next stop on their date.

Harry ends up bringing Louis to this tiny art gallery that’s not too far from the bakery. Louis is about to complain about having to stand and stare at art but Harry stops him from doing so by informing him that all the artwork is created by elementary school students. This fact has Louis wide-eyed and cooing at every piece of art they come across.

“They’re all so talented, Haz!” he cries out when Harry laughs at him for being so enamoured by the art. 

Some of the tiny artists themselves are present at the gallery too, standing by the pieces, explaining the process and inspiration behind each of their creations. The whole time Louis can’t stop thinking about his own little siblings. He hopes he’s not missing their own art exhibits because the children he’s with now are exhibiting amazing levels of pride and Louis wouldn’t want to miss his siblings being this proud. 

At the end of the gallery, there’s a section where you can purchase some of the artwork to support the school’s art and theater programs. Louis promptly buys two pieces of art: a handmade ceramic frog, “Because it looks just like you, H!” and an abstract painting that features only the colors blue and green. He also decides to donate some extra money because he knows just how important art and theater programs are to children, having found solace in his own school’s drama department when he was younger. 

Harry promises the date isn’t over yet as they walk back to his house. When they get back, Harry prompts Louis to change into some fancy. Louis panics because his only really fancy outfit he packed was what he wore for Thanksgiving, but he finds a deep red sweater he must’ve thrown in his duffel last minute. He pairs it with tight, flattering black skinny jeans and the shoes he wore on Thanksgiving. 

Harry approves of Louis’ outfit, himself wearing black skinny jeans and a black blouse with a wildflower floral print. They don’t linger for long, Harry pulling Louis out of the house and into his car. Louis knows better not to ask so they sit in silence the whole car ride. 

Louis can tell Harry is nervous because he’s chewing on his bottom lip, which is turning bright red under the constant nibbling. 

Everything finally clicks in Louis’ head as they pull up in front of a French restaurant. Louis lets out a small gasp. “Harry, you didn’t have to.”

Harry shrugs. He gets out of the car, walking around to the passenger side and opens Louis’ door for him. “I wanted to,” he shrugs. 

The dinner was absolutely amazing. They didn’t order an appetizer or dessert and they drank water the whole time, but it was the most fun Louis has ever had on a date. 

Louis is definitely wooed by the end of the night. They end up in an empty playground, sitting on the swings and Harry is drinking the cheap wine he had stashed in the car while Louis was getting dressed. Harry is looking up at the stars, rocking back and forth on his swing ever so slightly. Louis has his eyes on Harry. Harry is positively glowing under the moonlight and Louis can’t look away.

He thinks about the last four days he spent with Harry. A lot of the time was spent pining, yeah, but he also got to see the different sides of Harry. He saw Harry with his family and with children and Louis found himself more and more endeared each and every day. Harry’s happiness and extraordinary kind heart touches Louis deep down. 

It’s evident that Harry is a very special person, the type of person that only comes around once. Louis would very much like to keep him.

Harry brings his gaze down from the stars to look at Louis. He’s a little shocked to find Louis already looking at him and he blushes under the attention. 

Louis extends his arm, grabbing at Harry’s. He tangles their fingers together and gently swings their entwined hands back and forth. 

“This has been a very special day, Harry. Thank you,” Louis says earnestly.

Harry pulls their joined hands up towards his face, kissing the back of Louis’ hand reverently. “It’s been an honor spending it with you, Louis. You’re a very special person.”

When they get back to Harry’s house, Louis quietly opens Harry with his fingers, singing soft praises the whole time. Each thrust in and out of Harry’s body causes Louis’ heart to beat a little faster. The pure intimacy and love of the movements cause tears to fall from Harry’s eyes.

Louis kisses the tears away. “You’re okay, baby. You’re so special and so beautiful. You only deserve the best.”

Harry cries out as he comes. Louis, not yet finished, moves to pull out, not wanting to hurt his baby, but Harry insists Louis keeps going until he comes.

Louis kisses Harry passionately as he pushes back into the boy’s tight heat. Harry feels overwhelmed in all the right ways, tears flowing freely from not only the overstimulation, but from the way Louis is lovingly handling him. Louis finishes not long after, collapsing on top of Harry.

Louis cleans up as Harry lays there boneless, eyes finally dried up and tear free.

They cuddle close under the covers, Louis peppering Harry’s face in soft kisses in between compliments.

They’re almost completely asleep when Louis whispers into the darkness, “I know we only met on Monday, but I think I’m love with you, Harry.”

“I think I’m in love with you too, Louis.”

The moment after those words are spoken they fall into a deep, peaceful sleep

-

Harry has class tomorrow. Harry’s Thanksgiving break is officially over and it sucks. Harry has to go back to school, Louis has to go back to work. They can’t continue living in this little dream world they have created. Louis is a little bummed out, but hopefully this isn’t the last time he’ll see Harry. Who is he kidding? It definitely isn’t the last time he’ll see Harry. 

Anne was a little emotional saying goodbye to Harry and Louis when it was time for them to hit the road to go back to Manhattan. She was especially teary when she spoke to Louis privately, without her son listening in.

“Thank you, Louis,” she starts, voice full of emotion. “I see how happy you make my son and I see how happy he makes you. I’m overjoyed that I was able to meet you and I wish the both of you the best of luck.”

Overwhelmed with feelings, Louis pulls Anne in for a tight hug. “Thank you for having me, Anne. Thank you for having an amazing son,” he chuckles. 

“Take care of each other,” she begs.

“Of course,” he promises. 

Louis drops one last kiss to her cheek and joins Harry in the car.

-

They are about 10 minutes away from Louis’ apartment and Harry is chewing on his bottom lip nervously. 

Louis pokes at his cheek. “Stop it. What’s worrying you, baby?”

Harry releases his lip, pouting. “Nothing, just thinking.”

Louis raises his eyebrow, prompting Harry to continue. Harry tries to not break down and tell Louis, but he can’t resist Louis’ pouting face.

“Would you… Um, you don’t have to, but like, would you like to maybe - possibly spend the night at mine?” Harry stammers out.

“Of course, Haz. I would love to,” Louis smiles softly at the boy.

Harry easily changes his route to get to his apartment instead of Louis’. 

They order pizza after they share a shower (and a blowjob) and then spend the night on the couch watching Will & Grace reruns. They laugh until they’re breathless and when they finally do catch their breath, they steal it right back from each other with heated kisses.

Harry is so thankful for Louis. Harry is so thankful for how this holiday turned out. Christmas is his favorite time of year, but Harry thinks the entrance of a certain blue eyed boy into his life is now changing that. 

Breaking away from Louis’ lazy kisses as they lay in bed that night Harry whispers, “Louis. Be my boyfriend, please? My real boyfriend?”

As an answer Louis reattaches his lips to Harry’s in a passionate series of kisses. He pulls away when their lips are swollen and hearts are beating fast. He rests his palm on Harry’s chest, feeling each hammer of his heart. 

“Of course. Real boyfriends, baby.”

Harry can’t believe that just a week ago he was boyfriendless and now he has the most amazing person next to him in his bed. Harry and Louis tangle their limbs together under the covers and reflect on the past week. Louis tells Harry about Erik and his bout with near alcoholism and how Roy and Shawn took him in. He tells Harry about Liam and Zayn. He tells him about his many siblings.

Harry tells Louis about his fears and his dreams. He tells him about how much he has struggled with his confidence and with his family’s expectations for him. He tells Louis about Niall. He tells Louis how much appreciates him as a person, as a friend, and now as a significant other. 

When the morning comes, Harry doesn’t want to get up to get ready for his classes. Luckily the sunlight filtering through his windows woke him up early enough so he has a few hours to spare in bed with his boyfriend.

Turning over to wake up Louis and say good morning, Harry finds him already awake, looking anxious. Before Harry can ask what’s wrong, Louis speaks up.

“Harry,” he starts, taking a deep breath, organizing his thoughts and steadying his heart. “Harry, since I spent Thanksgiving with your family, would you like to spend Christmas with mine?” he asks shyly. 

Harry’s mouth hangs open. Louis still looks a little nervous as he waits for Harry to reply, but Harry is a little too stunned to answer. It’s a little random, but it’s such a Louis thing to do - ask important questions at random times. Harry wants to scream  _ yes, yes, yes _ from the rooftops, but he manages to spit out three completely different words.

“I love you,” Harry declares quietly and passionately, so full of emotion.

Louis pulls him Harry into a searing kiss. Harry’s body feels like he’s engulfed in flames, every inch of his skin burning with love for Louis Tomlinson. 

**Author's Note:**

> I promised an epilogue and it's literally been four months since I've promised an epilogue and there's still no epilogue. I will write one eventually. Maybe. I just really wanted to write about Harry and Louis going to Philly to meet Louis' family but I lost inspiration along the way. Sorry. Be on the lookout for other fics of mine though! 
> 
> [this is my tumblr](http://hrrytomlinson.tumblr.com) // [this is a rebloggable post for this fic](http://hrrytomlinson.tumblr.com/post/153720279305/loving-with-a-little-twist-by-hrrytomlinson)


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